#93 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Monday July 19)
Good morning,
MORE SPORTS SILLINESS
There are so many missteps, miscues, and just plain hypocrisy that plagues the sports world. For some reason we have rigid rules that only sometimes bear a relation to reality, yet problems that would seem easy to address that we ignore. On top of this, we put these people on a pedestal and harangue them mercilessly.
The recent case in point is Sha’Carri Richardson, who tested positive for marijuana and, therefore, will sacrifice years of preparation and forego a trip to the Olympics in Tokyo (you know, the “no spectators allowed” Olympics). She is suspended for the use of a substance that is legal in many states and hardly can be described as “performance enhancing.” (unless the performance they’re talking about involves dancing on a table in a college dorm). Mr. Richardson is receiving the sports equivalent of the “death penalty” for what can best be described as a youthful dalliance. I feel like these rules are made to make the sports governing bodies feel better about themselves, without regard for the facts, circumstances, or practical implications.
Add to this the abusive treatment of Naomi Osaka at the French Open. Just because these people are good at their sport doesn’t mean that they and their lives need to be so exposed to the public with impunity. Ms. Osaka was known to be challenged by issues of mental health, yet was relentlessly pursued by a hungry press without regard for her well-being.
On the happier news front, the NCAA is finally getting its come-uppance. That organization, ostensibly all about “student athletes,” which metes out penalties illogically and inconsistently, finally is having its wings clipped. It’s about time the exploitation of student athletes cease and they be granted the ability to capitalize on their names and likenesses. Now, if we can just take back the ridiculous multi-year suspension, vacated wins, and penalties meted out to USC out of apparent anger (and inconsistent with, and excessive in comparison to, prior and subsequent sanctions), perhaps all will finally be right in NCAA Land! But I doubt it.
PROFESSIONAL POLITICAL CLASS
There are certain people that in each and every interaction they teach you something. The other day I bumped into one such person—Zev Yaroslavsky. Some of you non-Angelenos may not recognize that name. Anyone who knows anything about the City and County of Los Angeles know this name well. Zev was a community activist elected as the youngest person ever elected to the Los Angeles City Council. He served there and as a member of the County Board of Supervisors for a distinguished career of public service of nearly 40 years.
In lamenting the woeful inability of our political class to govern effectively, Zev suggested I pay attention to the prior careers of our current city councilpersons. Many, he notes, are former state legislators who were “termed out” by term limits in other political positions—members of the political class.
Zev noted that when he joined the council as a former student activist, he joined a council that included people from all walks of life, including jazz musicians and funeral directors. These were people who chose to serve, as one stop along a career trajectory that did not involve only political office. The list of councilpersons on Zev’s arrival on the scene says something about who rose to City Council then, versus the growing “political class” that governs us now:
Career fireman (Louis Nowell)
lawyer and later Gay activist and arts patron (Joel Wachs)
funeral director (Don Lorenzen), a football player and insurance salesman (John Ferraro)
President of the League of Women Voters and Camp Fire Girls supporter (Pat Russell),
journalist (Bob Farrell),
saxophonist from the big band era and homebuilder (Ernani Bernardi),
former janitor and clerk in the DWP (Gil Lindsay),
lawyer and consultant (David Cunningham)
sales promotion manager (Bob Wilkinson)
lawyer and restauranteur (Art Snyder)
dairy and banking (John Gibson)
actor (Robert Stevenson)
It is a real problem that today our legislators seem merely on the road from one elected or appointed office to the next. Gone are the days of a George Washington, who refused to run for a third term and returned to Mount Vernon. As recently as the 20th century, many of our presidents didn’t come to Washington from a political background—Wilson, Hoover, Eisenhower, and Truman all started in other walks of life. We now have a political class—it is a separate career path. It is not surprising that legislators will do almost anything—sell out to any lobby, pretend to accept claims that the Biden election was stolen—in the interest of retaining their office. If they lose it, where will many of them go?
I once commented to a friend about Kevin McCarthy’s seeming lack of intelligence and lack of backbone. That friend, who knows McCarthy, asked why I was surprised. He will do whatever he can to maintain his Congressional seat. After all, if he ever loses, what else is he qualified to do? Who will hire him?
THE FREEWAY AS EVIDENCE OF WHO WE ARE
The other day I was driving with Andrea on the 405. The onramp was two lanes that merged into one. As we were respectfully “zipper merging” (one car from the left lane, followed by one from the right, etc.), a car came zooming up on the left to cut us off. Had we maintained our speed, we would have been driven off the road. Had we maintained our trajectory we would have sideswiped each other. Who had the right of way was clear. For some reason, he seemed to believe he had the right to disrupt the natural flow of traffic and polite behavior. We slowed and he got what he wanted.
Once on the freeway, we were moving along in the “number two” lane when a car from the “number one” lane (just to our right) decided to merge in. We presumably were in his blind spot. He was alongside our car and I knew we couldn’t brake in time. After honking and a quick swerve into the left lane (as a car came barreling from behind) avoided a crash.
What these two unrelated actions represented to me is two aspects of what our society has become—people obsessed with getting in front of everyone else, regardless of their safety or the safety of others—and people so preoccupied as to not pay attention to what is going on around them, exposing themselves and others to unnecessary risk. In each circumstance, the risk of harm was pretty high and the potential benefit of the chosen action was small.
Separately, I am concerned with the increased reliance on cameras and beeping warnings in newer cars. As people rely on those cameras, they already are using their rear-view mirrors less and look over their shoulders even less frequently. Is this also a metaphor? Are we a people no longer willing to look over our shoulders to identify oncoming risks and act accordingly?
Just some random thoughts from a car-oriented Angeleno,
Glenn
Click here to subscribe to Musings.
From the archives: