FEEL GOODIE #1

Monday August 25: 2014; one more August weekend left, just barely because next Monday is Labor Day!

Rather than a long and serious blog I thought that today I would  post as the mood struck a series of “Feel Goodie” vignettes, and perhaps a few not so good.

I think that it is justified that all (almost) of American became enamored with Chicago’s Jackie Robinson Little League team.

This 100% African-American group of kids from one of the worst “hoods” in the Country illustrates that it is possible for dedicated adults and kids to rise above and possibly help overcome the acceptance of a status quo which breeds crime and continued poverty.

My wife and I were Brooklyn Dodger fans when Jackie Robinson, enduring the bigotry and hate, broke the white only barrier in organized professional baseball. We watched on our small screen black and white TV many a game played by this most thrilling player.

Jackie’s groundbreaking career led to an influx of black American baseball players, some of the greatest in the game. Sadly for reasons not known young black athletes have turned away from baseball in favor of football and basketball. Today only about 5% of major league players are African-American, the large number of colored ball players we see today come from the Islands and Central/ South American.

Could this stimulate a new era? We hope so, since it will also mean a change in atmosphere, a glimmer of hope and desire, in our racially blighted cities.

The real Feel Goodie in this story is that it represents a concerned cooperative community action. That is better than talk, or "bitching", or blaming others..