FOREWORD: Gentle Reader, this blog continues to evolve, and its evolution is moving well past considerable emphasis on real estate. In fairness and a dedication to authenticity, I’m severing any official association between these writings and the real estate profession, as well as with my brokerage of affiliation, Sommerlyn Associates, LLC. I’m still a real estate professional, and I’ll still comment on that aspect of my life, but it would be disingenuous to present this as a real estate blog.
Salutations, Gentle Reader,
You may have noticed that I enjoy reading, writing, and discussing poetry. In the verdant days of college I discovered this love. I still remember an instructor in my freshman year, Mr. Ron Rash, whose teaching style was unlike any other I’d experienced. He ignited a spark that has never been extinguished. To consider poetry is to consider language. To consider language is to consider interaction. To consider interaction is to consider life itself.
The sports world–and to an extent, even the greater culture regardless of its affinity or lack thereof for sport–has been rocked this past week by the revelation of racist remarks by Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling. The National Basketball Association responded by suspending him from the NBA for life and assessing him a $2.5M fine. NBA commissioner Adam Silver cites irreparable harm by the league’s longest tenured owner. Sterling has indicated he’ll appeal.
Aside from my love of the irony of the two principals in the saga being named Sterling and Silver, this whole situation makes me sick. Sterling’s attitude is indicative of most of what I find distasteful in society, ultimately attitudes that are grounded in the concepts of fear and exclusion. However, as much as I disagree with Sterling’s attitude, he was allegedly recorded without being informed (illegal in the state of California) and was holding a private conversation with his girlfriend. As NBA great Kareem Abdul Jabaar pointed out, we Americans have been excoriating the federal government, particularly the National Security Administration, for its eavesdropping practices lately. How, then, can we accept the same of Sterling?
Segue with me to tomorrow’s running of the Kentucky Derby. In those same college days, my friends and I would hold Derby Day parties–really an excuse to celebrate the ending semester and drink mint juleps. In my jovial manner, I’d predict the winner solely based on the colours of the jockey or the name of the horse. I hit the jackpot when Spend-A-Buck won! (Incidentally, so as not to be accused of pulling a Sterling, the jockey’s colours refer to the actual colour and pattern of the silks he wears, not his ethnicity.) Prior to the running of the Derby, we would join in singing the Bluegrass State’s official song, “My Old Kentucky Home”, written by the famous American songster Stephen Foster, who actually spent much more time in New York than he ever did in Kentucky. Foster evolved from being complacent about slavery into being an abolitionist, and the lyrics of “My Old Kentucky Home” actually were intended to draw attention to the plight of slaves and move towards abolition, a motivation that was recognized and acknowledged by Frederick Douglass.
Verse 1:
The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home
’tis summer, the darkies are gay,
the corn top’s ripe and the meadow’s in the bloom
while the birds make music all the day.
The young folks roll on the little cabin floor
all merry, all happy, and bright.
By’n by hard times comes a-knocking at the door,
then my old Kentucky home, good night.
Chorus:
Weep no more, my lady,
oh weep no more today.
We will sing on song for the old Kentucky home,
for the old Kentucky home far away.
Yet that isn’t what will be sung tomorrow in Louisville at Churchill Downs. The second line will be sung thus: “…’tis summer, the people are gay…” In 1986, a group of visiting Japanese students were in the gallery of the Kentucky House and began to sing the song, which was adopted as the state’s official song in 1928. Everyone stood, but when the students sang “darkeyes”, Represent Carl Hines, the assembly’s lone black representative, sat down. Within days, he sponsored House Resolution 159, which amended the lyrics for any occasion in which the song was to be sung at any official state function.
The result was the removal of an offensive word. The secondary result was that Foster’s abolitionist intent was diminished, if not totally removed. The image of people being gay–and not in the way with which I may be rightfully associated–leads to grand thoughts of the antebellum Old South, an idyll captured at the beginning of Gone With the Wind. Or as I like to say, the “good ol’ days” were only good if you were one of the majority, because after all, history is recorded by the victors.
Language. Powerful stuff. Respect it.
Remain calm, and speak well.
Be kind to yourself. Be kind to the planet and the future. Cause no suffering. Go Vegan!
David!
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