WNBA TV announcers: I am woman, hear me roar!

Photo caption: WNBA star Candace Parker

I like the WNBA sometimes.

But the WNBA game will never be as popular as the NBA--and there's nothing wrong with that--but don't tell that to the announcers of WNBA games. They are going all out in trying to sell the game to a basketball public that couldn't hardly care less. These announcers go so far in their sales pitch as to compare the L.A. Sparks' exciting and hugely talented new star Candace Parker to Lebron James--after only three games.

The WNBA management is trying way too hard to sell the game. Instead of talking about the actual game, the announcers spend nearly the whole game explaining why people should like the WNBA game. There are constant references to the NBA players, and stories about how "times are changing" for professional female basketball because some little boy was at a WNBA game asking about Candace.

Let the women play. The game is going to stand on its own. Babbling about why we should watch takes away from the real reason we should watch: Candace Parker is no joke.

But when she dunks for the first time in a WNBA game, the announcers, instead of shutting up and enjoying the sports moment for what it will be--no doubt an exciting play, 'cuz girl can throw down--the WNBA commentators will babble away at how women "have continued to arrive" in basketball, and that the public should watch "these super women" (lyrics to an Alicia Keys song that the WNBA loves to play just before and after commercial breaks).

Enough already. The WNBA will continue not to live up to its full potential unless it realizes that the ones who should be selling the game should be the players--not catchy Alicia Keys songs or announcers/sales people.

Copyright © 2008 Clymel Thomas
Publisher DarkstreetLit.com

Not a Saint

MLK Boulevard, ANYBLACKTOWN, USA:  Like the man himself, a partial picture...

A true, complete picture of the man Rev./Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is generally not presented, and it can be argued one step further: When Dr. King was effectively turned into a saint after he died, he and his message started to lose their effectiveness and to some extent, their hold on people. This was probably not an accident either. The more detached Dr. King was made to seem from us actual humans, the reasoning probably went, the more likely we would not follow what he preached while he was was among us.

On some level, people need to know that Dr. King was human and had faults just like the rest of us--other women allegedly turned his head, for example; the man was not perfect. Dr. King was never a saint, he was a man who, despite his faults, gave his life for progress. The real life, flesh and blood man--not the ideal of a perfect man--should be emulated and praised.

Today, Dr. King is seen as someone "out there...from back then" who did great things, who, for a kid in 2008, other than being able to reach up to a street sign that says "MLK BLVD" that lingers above a usually tore up inner-city street, the Rev./Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the man, is unreachable.

It should not be this way.

This problem of ignoring the less than pleasant side of things goes beyong Dr. King. If we sugar coat issues, young people see through it and ignore what is being said--e.g. sex, violence, drugs, et al. are simply "bad."

The message cannot be left at "just say no" because sex is enjoyable, violence has a twisted appeal for many people, and, I assume, that while people are doing drugs, there can be a fantastic high. But there ARE consequences.

Show both--the good and the bad--for the real message to ring true. Too many "messengers"--some modern day preachers on the one hand, and some Hollywood producers on the other--show the "just say no" side or the "hell yeah!/consequences be damned" other side, leaving the truth sagging in the middle like an unused dumbell weight that inevitably is dropped between them.

Sadly, too often, neither side wants to hold up the truth, and all of us suffer because of the confusion that results.

Truth be told...or it will get worse.

Copyright © 2008 Clymel Thomas
Publisher DarkstreetLit.com

Be a Man About It

Being a man is a 24-7 job. There is no let up or time out. In one of the greatest movies of all time, "The Godfather," the family patriarch Vito Corleone tells his son, Michael, that he, as a man, cannot be careless...only women and children can afford to be. (OK, a little mysoginistic from the old guy, but understand his core point: a man cannot slack off.)

I know very well a man who has provided for his family for the last 15 years, starting out as a security guard making $9/hour, graduated college and for the last 10 years worked his way up in a financial services profession where he was making six figures, doing complex deals on Wall Street.

He was laid off earlier this year. Granted, he has a college degree and years of professional experience, but people are not feeling for it right about now.

He is going to have to figure out a way regardless.

Trust God.

He cannot afford to be careless. His woman and children are depending upon him.

He is a man.

Copyright © 2008 Clymel Thomas
Publisher DarkstreetLit.com

N.O. Katrina

Two New Orleans murder victims

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It was reported by "48 Hours" recently that 1 out of 162 murders committed in New Orleans in 2006 has resulted in a conviction, only 0.62%. The United States National Guard is still patrolling areas of New Orleans. What do you think is happening there (or not) that is causing New Orleans to suffer the way it is, notwithstanding the progress that has been made?

The 48 Hours story:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/09/48hours/main3348928_page4.shtml

Copyright © 2008 Clymel Thomas
Publisher DarkstreetLit.com