Storms

Storms seem brewing not represented by weather; namely by a guy named Donald Sterling, the owner of a professional basketball team, the Clippers of Los Angeles,  California. He is reported to have uttered some very racist comments that got recorded then reported. The storm over these statements is starting to spin in the nature of a tornado who's path is not determined nor its potential destruction calculated. 

His words have pulled the scab off of racism, that wound festering for well over century. Donald Sterling, a mega millionaire, often captured on camera with attractive women in his company, many of diverse skin colors, he still plays his eighty some year old game of being a hunk to women. 

Money, mega money, has the muscle to buy professional sports teams and staff them with players, coaches, and administrators drawn from predominately  males of all ethnicities. It's true, many in Sterling's employment are only a couple of generations away from the cotton fields of segregated slavery. Most in the World have put this thought behind them but, in Donald Sterling's being, he seems not to have embraced the ideals of forget and forgive. Also, it seems, Donald still carries the aura of Master/Serf in his heart.

The Master/Serf anomaly must be an experience learned not something inborn. Could his demanding drive to accumulate wealth have developed in him these thought patterns ? It certainly seems, from my  understanding of those in our society who doggedly pursue wealth, that they acquire a jaded view of the common man. Their view gets wrapped around a generalization : in man, there are takers and there are givers. 

As a three day storm cranks up out west and starts its tornado devastation across the USA, a similar storm is taking place on TV and radio stations. The Clippers are engaged in the NBA championship series with a chance to go further on if they continue to win. The future of the Clipper's owner is, about as up in the air, as will be the condition of residents living in Tornado Alley after a stormy season. As the president put it : when ignorance opens its mouth, it's best to let what's said, be heard.

Ronald C. Downie












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