I feel a little bad because I’m doing a little hating. In sports, that’s when a fan roots against another team because he or she just does not like that team. Most of the time hating on a team is motivated by the number of headaches the hated team gives your favorite team. For example I am a Lakers fan so I have a tendency to hate on…that’s right, the Celtics. The Celtic vs. Lakers is one of the greatest rivalries in team sports and it continues today with the current Lakers and Celtics as both teams are very good and are the last two teams to win the NBA Finals. I was a teenager back in the day of Kareem, Magic, Worthy, on one side and Parrish, Bird and McHale on the other. Societal politics played a big part in this rivalry. Boston represented the White Boy team and the Lakers were the Black man’s team. Bird and McHale were like the Great White Hope for professional basketball.

Another intense rivalry from my sports fan past that does not have the same  significance today was between the Dallas Cowboys and my favorite team the Pittsburg Steelers. This was a super intense rivalry in the 70’s as they met in the Super Bowl twice and people called Dallas America’s team while Pittsburgh was winning more rings. The rivalry cooled off for sometime as the two teams lost their dominance. Dallas gained back its winning ways in the 90’s while Pittsburg languished in rebuilding the franchise purgatory. Today the Steelers are back on top having won 2 of the last 4 Super Bowls while Dallas has not been able to get past the 1st round of the playoffs I believe for nearly a decade. Of course this makes me very happy.

People also like to hate on winning teams. The Lakers, Cowboys, Celtics, Bulls, UNC Tar Heels, Duke Blue Devils and New York Yankees (another team I love to root against) have all been targets because they are so good and people just love to hate them. This is one of the reasons some people hate on the Patriots.

The Patriots’ winning ways only adds fuel to the fire of my dislike for them. My feelings are a story of politics and sports. It really begins with my general bad feeling about Boston stemming from my childhood experience of hearing that Boston area teachers were going on strike because of racial integration. I was hurt as a child by the idea that teachers, people who are suppose to look out for children, hated me as a Black child so much that they were refusing to teach kids that look like me and go on strike to keep kids like me out of their schools. My mother is a retired teacher, so I had a clear idea of how teachers should treat their students and striking because they did not want to teach kids was not it. It was 1975. I was 11 years old.

However, I did not hold anything against the Patriots. I rooted for the Bears in the 1986 Super Bowl XX, because I thought the Bears were a better team and I liked Walter Payton who I thought deserved a ring. My attitude changed towards active dislike of the Patriots in 2001.

After September 11, 2001 millions across the country started a patriotism mantra of how the world had changed and now we are all united flag wavers ready to roll.  You are either with us or against us. I had a negative reaction to this outburst of blind patriotism. Most repugnant was the attack on people like me who questioned U.S. foreign policy and if war would be the best response. According to the “Super Patriots,” I was not sufficiently patriotic because of my questions and expressions of dissent. That year the New England Patriots had an 11-5 season and won their first Super Bowl on February 3, 2002. A lot of people jumped on the Patriots’ bandwagon. I could feel this idea of destiny for the Patriots to win the game because it was America’s time and Patriots would come out on top. This simplistic blind patriotism was disgusting. All you have to do is root for team USA. Forget the hard work of educating yourself so that you can evaluate cause and effect in an effort to determine the right course of action. Let the so called leaders tell us what to think and do.

So from then on the Patriots became my favorite NFL team to cheer against. I was so unhappy most of the 2007/2008 season when the Patriots went undefeated until that final Super Bowl loss to the New York Giants. I have never been so happy to see a team other than my own win or to see a team that was not playing my team lose.

I must admit my intense dislike for the Patriots has fallen off some. Hating is hard work and not really fun. I respect Randy Moss’ ability and would like to see him with a ring even if it has to be with the Patriots. But I still will not root for them. I felt a little bad when Tom Brady sustained a season ending injury in 2008. A friend of mine accused me of wishing the injury on Brady. I felt a little worse when his injured knee became infected. But by the end of the season I was ecstatic with the Pittsburg Steelers as Super Bowl Champions. I know it’s kind of sad. But that is how sports work.

The win by the Colts was great. It was one of the best games I have seen in quite awhile. The Patriots lost made it just that much better.

The G-20

 more pics here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033255&id=1566630110&l=54ec9e9eff

The twenty largest world economies converged in Pittsburgh to discuss the future of the global economy and continue to guide it via their agreed policies. Iraq Veterans Against the War joined by a several members of Veterans For Peace gathered with thousands of activist in Pittsburgh to register our dissatisfaction with G-20 policies.

We conducted a living memorial to all those who have died in war and those who have otherwise suffered because of war. Before the program portion of the memorial, we mud stenciled and chalked thoughts about our refusal to give of ourselves for corporate profits. A moment of silence was followed by an open mike for veterans to share what we have given and what we will no longer give for war. The attendees where then asked to share in the same way.

Pittsburgh was selected to host the summit by the Administration because: (from the White House website: Pittsburg is “a city that has transformed itself from the city of steel to a center for high-tech innovation –including green technology, education and training, and research and development – Pittsburgh will provide both a beautiful backdrop and a powerful example for our work.” 

White House statement on Pittsburg and the G-20

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Statement-by-the-President-on-G-20-Summit-in-Pittsburgh

Moreover how can 20 nations claim to represent what is best for the world of 195 countries.

IVAW mud stencil G-20

The residents of the Hill district where Bail Out the People erected a tent city on Monumental Baptist Church grounds would wonder about that work. If the work is supposed to help or provide opportunity, it has not reached that Pittsburgh neighborhood. It is clear that the economic policies of at least the past 35 years have tilted economic growth to benefit the well to do, rich and super rich. The financial crisis has laid bare the failure of the policies and millions suffer as a consequence. Yet in the face of this failure, the 20 do not change direction. They choose to maintain the same general policies, with moderation and adjustments. Corporate profits will continue to be the main measure of success. Investment in human needs and growth will continue to loose to profit motive rather than considered essential to have a fair and just society. Greed will continue to be applauded as good, but in smaller doses. 

Greed is never good.  There is never a good war.

I have some connection to the Steel City. My late Aunt Beatrice’s children live in Aliquippa, a small steel town along the Ohio River right outside Pittsburgh. It once had a thriving economy. The 1980’s collapse of the steel industry devastated Aliquippa and it has not recovered.

I found a personal witness to the violence and suffering brought by the disappearing of jobs. Darrelle Shavar Revis is a cornerback for the New York Jets of the National Football League. Revis is 24 years old and grew up in Aliquippa.  This is a September 27^th interview in the NY Post.

Q: The worst thing you saw growing up in Aliquippa, Pa.?

A: The worst thing I saw is on the corner somebody just running up to somebody just shooting them right in the head . . . like three times . . . and everybody just scattered running, and he’s on the ground bleeding. I’ve seen guys get stabbed before. . . . It’s horrifying to see. It seems like these movies we see today, I mean, movies are just movies, but when you actually see it in reality, it’s not a fun sight. You don’t just want to wish that upon nobody.

Q: How old were you when you saw the guy get shot?

A: 12.

Q: Somebody you knew?

A: Yes, I knew him.

Q: Friend of yours?

A: Our hometown is very small, everybody knows everybody. Everybody always said I was probably gonna make it out of there to play sports or do something. . . . so everybody kinda knew like I was one of the young guys that, “Oh yeah, he has potential, he might be the next Ty Law” or stuff like that. . . . I used to carry a ball — a football or basketball — with me everywhere.

We had like four people die the last two months, and one of ‘em was my cousin. In the summertime, I went home, I saw him . . . and the next week I get a call from my mom saying, “Your cousin’s dead.” I’m like, “What? I just saw him last week.”

I really don’t go home that much. . . . I don’t know if people are gonna be jealous of me, or things like that. Some people now are saying, “Maybe you need to come back and reach out or talk to some of the young kids,” and I will do that eventually. You gotta go back to show love and make sure these young kids can know it’s a bigger world. Some people don’t leave where they’re from. . . . Go travel somewhere, go see other places . . . and it can open up your eyes.

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/jets/serby_sunday_with_darrelle_revis_WojUVfULuCTY5AZjc3dbjL/1

Four in the last two months could have easily been five. I ran into Progressive Democrat member and co-activist Carl Davidson. He now lives in Aliquippa. He introduced me to Rick Kimbrough another Aliquippa resident. We talked a bit about the G-20. We went on to talk about Aliquippa, family and violence. He told me his nephew Shawn had been shot in the head the night before, but he was alive and recovering. I was taken back by the story. Eighteen year old Shawn was a random victim of gun violence. The shooting was extremely blatant and senseless. The shooter opened up on a crowd of youth hanging out at a favorite spot. I later related this story to my family and they were well aware of it and new of the victim. Read the news account. Youth violence is a common experience. It is painful when anyone dies, but when the youth kill each other there is a special kind of hurt.

Aliquippa teen expected to survive being shot in head

http://news.tradingcharts.com/futures/7/1/129496417.html

White House statement on Pittsburg and the G-20

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Statement-by-the-President-on-G-20-Summit-in-Pittsburgh