Rubicon

Sorry this isn't exactly about James, but I can type and he can't. We're watching the inauguration, and I think it's worth commenting on.

When I was a kid, Joe Montana and Jerry Rice were the modern-day Arthur and Lancelot. We went out in the backyard and somebody would be Montana, somebody would be Rice, and the rest of us would be disappointed. Herschel Walker was like a comic-book superhero. My brother's stories of Jim Thorpe and Hank Aaron were, to me, like the legends of Paul Bunyan and John Henry. Dale Murphy was the famous Brave of the day, but Hank Aaron was timeless, larger than life. None of us knew anything about any of those great athletes except that they were great athletes. They were the greatest athletes. We wanted to be them. None of us, even in semi-rural Georgia, ever thought about the fact that some of these super-athletes were a different color. He can catch/throw/hit a ball; who cares what he looks like? I didn't even know that Jim Thorpe was Native American until I was 18 years old. In fact, it was in high school that I first understood that there was a time when Jerry Rice and Hank Aaron wouldn't have been allowed to play. It took guys like Jackie Robinson and Fritz Pollard and Thorpe, who were brave enough to be the first, and good enough to make people see their talent instead of their color, to pave the way for them. It also took owners, managers, and coaches who were willing to give them a chance, who chose teamwork above segregation, who decided that being the same was not as important as being the best.
Today, our political system caught up with our pastimes. The majority of our nation voted to be led by a man that doesn't look like the majority of our nation. James is going to grow up in a nation where George Washington and Barack Obama are no less equal than Montana and Rice. Won't it be great when in school, James will learn about Obama, not as the first, but as the 44th? Barack Obama might turn out to be the best president we've ever had, or he might be the worst. But he's in; he's the president, and that makes his color irrelevant. We have officially gotten past how he looks; now let's see how he plays.