Baby Mitchell x 3

Several years ago, the daughter of one of my favorite professors at Ohio State married a young black man named Sean Patrick Mitchell.  When she had her first child, I got to kid her and the rest of her family that I was deeply honored that they had named the child after me.  Well, the kid’s name is Mitchell, isn't it?  By the time she'd had her third kid, that gag had gotten a bit old.  Now, at this point, I imagine a great many people are saying, “Oh how wonderful!”  Well, not so fast.  My friend’s daughter, shortly after delivering her third child, made the very alarming discovering that while her husband professed to love her and his children; apparently, he loved his crack pipe more.  She finally threw him out of the house, got a divorce and is getting her life back on track while raising three biracial children. 

That story reminds me of the wisdom Ralph Bunche showed more than 50 years ago while at a high society dinner party when the subject of civil rights came up.  An elderly lady asked Bunche (not realizing that he was a light-skinned black man), “would you want your daughter to marry a Negro?”  Bunche considered the question for a moment and then replied, “Well, not just *any* Negro.”

Phoebe Ann Mosley’s Brush with Destiny

Phoebe Ann Mosley grew up in a very poor farm family in Ohio in the 1800s.  I can only imagine that she frequently had conversations with her mother that went something like this:

“Hi Mom what’s for dinner tonight?”

“I don’t know Phoebe. Have you shot anything?” 

From a very early age, Phoebe developed absolutely extraordinary skills as a marksman, because, for her family, it was quite literally a matter of shoot something or go hungry.  Many years later, she crossed paths will Buffalo Bill Coty and her future husband Frank Butler.  She then achieved legendary status under the stage name of Annie Oakley.  While there are many legends that have grown up around Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, as a sharp shooter, Annie Oakley was the genuine article.  One of her stunts was to shoot the ash off a lit cigar at 20 paces, which she was able to do on a regular basis. One night while touring Europe, Buffalo Bill asked for a volunteer from the audience to hold the cigar.  To the crowd’s absolute horror, Kaiser Wilhelm, the emperor of Germany, came forward.  I have no information as to whether Annie had been drinking the night before, but I’m sure that everyone in the audience and in the Wild West troop held their breath until Annie did indeed shoot the ash off of Kaiser Bill’s lit cigar.  About 20 years later, when America entered the First World War, Annie Oakley wrote Kaiser Wilhelm to ask if he would care to repeat that stunt. She received no reply.

Book of Lamentation/Consolation

In 588 B.C. the Babylonian army took Jerusalem and destroyed Solomon’s temple.  The prophet Jeremiah lived in a cave nearby and spent many years writing what is known as the Book of Lamentations.  He could see the ruins of the temple from where he lived and for such a devout man it must have been an absolutely heartbreaking sight.

There’s no way for me to send a message back to him.  But if I could, I'd like to pick up a phone and have a conversation that went something like this:

“Hey Jerry, it’s Kent.  Yes, this is a device which sends messages from the distant future and translates English into Hebrew, but never mind. Look Jerry, I understand that you are totally bummed out about the temple being destroyed.  That’s a tough one.  But I've got some good news for you, guy: you are going to live long enough to see that temple rebuilt and it will then stand as one of the great architectural wonders of the world for the next six centuries.

“I was afraid you were going to ask me that.  Look, Jerry, the question of rebuilding a third time is still under discussion today, 2600 years later; but here’s some consolation for you: even though the stones of that temple have been destroyed, the people of your tribe have managed to survive for 2600 years and to spread throughout the world even to lands you never even knew existed. There are those who speak Hebrew and practice Judaism in Israel even today.  Furthermore, they've kept their faith living in lands 20 times further from Jerusalem than Babylon is, and Babylon is a land only known through scholars of ancient history.  You see, faith is not about the building.”

The Mike Wallace Question

Many years ago, Mike Wallace appeared on a panel discussion program along with Peter Jennings and the moderator asked the question: If you were accompanying a unit of enemy soldiers in the field and an American unit was about to walk into an ambush they had set, would you try to warn the Americans?  Peter Jennings’ initial reaction was that he would try to do so.  At that point, Mike Wallace jumped all over Jennings’ case; going into a tirade about professional ethics.  I find it extremely ironic that a Canadian citizen showed more concern for American servicemen’s lives than did a former U.S. Navy Officer.  To me, this raises an interesting question: If American troops ever find an American journalist embedded with a unit of foreign fighters, what should they do with that journalist?

The Day after Woody’s Last Day

Some of my readers know that one of the greatest experiences of my early adulthood was getting to be friends with Ohio State’s legendary football coach, Woody Hayes.  As a child, I’d been terribly un-athletic (and my brothers always exhibited great sensitivity and understand about that fact), and the fact that I got to hang out and discuss history with a man as famous as Woody put me on cloud nine.  The last day of Woody’s life, he had breakfast at the faculty club, with two Yale PhDs (including Professor Williamson Murray, a man I’d introduced to Woody years before). On the night of March 11, 1987, Woody went to sleep in his own bed and never woke up. I could think of a whole lot worse ways of dying than going out like Woody did.  In the days after Woody’s passing, there was a joke circulated around Columbus that death didn’t dare come for Woody in the day time.  If it had, there would have been one helluva fight.

It was not until later that I learned that Woody had been scheduled to go over to a local elementary school and give a talk to a group of 5th graders on March 12th. That still strikes me as great tribute to Woody’s character.  He genuinely cared about education and young people (or “youngsters” as he had always called them).  The Columbus Dispatch did a photo of the 5th grade class looking sad because they missed their chance to meet Woody.  When word of this got back to Archie Griffin, Ohio State’s legendary 2-time Heisman trophy winner, he went over to the grade school and gave a talk to the kids.  I’m reminded of something Woody once said: “Archie Griffin is finer human being than he is a football player, and he’s the finest football player I’ve ever seen.”

Jarron Collins

I see that Jason Collins is very much in the news since he came out as the NBA’s first openly gay player.  There has been considerable comment on the fact that he has not been able to sign a contract with any NBA team.  To this I point out that it is hardly news that a 35-year old player who has been with 6 teams in 12 years in the NBA would have difficulty making an NBA roster.  If Mr. Collins did sign a contract, he would not be the oldest player in the NBA, but he would definitely qualify for elder statesman status.  While listening to some pundits speculate on this matter, I asked the question, “What if Jason Collins had a twin whose sexuality was straight?”  Would he be able to get an NBA contract?”  Well, low and behold, he does have a twin brother named Jarron.  They are both 6’11,” they both played college ball at Stanford, and they are both currently without an NBA contract.  To the question of: “Is Jason Collins being discriminated against because of his sexual orientation?” I would say it has not been proven.

The America’s Later Career

I imagine that almost everyone has heard of the America’s Cup named after the ship that won a yachting competition held off the south coast of England back in 1851. When Queen Victoria heard that an American ship named the America had won the race, she asked, “Who won second place?”  The yachting official’s response was, “Madame, there IS no second place!”  For well over a century, the America’s Cup served as the source of an intense rivalry between filthy rich yachtsmen on both sides of the Atlantic who clearly had entirely too much time on their hands. 

I recently learned that the good ship America had an interesting post-racing career.  It served on both sides in the American civil war. When the war broke out, some wealthy southerners put the America into service as a blockade runner, until 1862 when they scuttled it to keep it from falling into Union hands.  Union forces promptly managed to raise and repair the America and put it work enforcing the blockade.  Sadly the America has not survived to this day.  It burned in a warehouse fire after serving many years at the U.S. Naval Academy.  I have always regarded yachting as the perfect sport for millionaires with a great deal more dollars than sense.