Who can envision South Africa without Mandela?

Physically, the book is boxed up in an air conditioned storage unit. Emotionally, “A Long Walk To Freedom" is a book that will never leave my heart.

Its author, Rolihlahla Mandela, died Thursday. He was 95.

A man who did not possess as much confidence as his peers went on to change the world. His patience, determination, courage, selflessness and optimism were infectious. Even those who never met him, and I was one of them, were immediately drawn to him.

His autobiography germinated an idea in me to visit his beautiful country when it was no more than a wish to visit a faraway land.

Mandela was a national treasure, so much so that South Africans affectionately called him Madiba. As he fought for his life in a Pretoria hospital, one Johannesburg newspaper ran the headline “Holding on to a mighty heart.”

Mandela’s heart may have been mighty, but it has endured a lot. An unconfident boy from the South African hinterland grew up to become a lawyer and eventual leader of the African National Congress. He was married with a family when apartheid was instituted in 1948.



By the time apartheid crumbled, Mandela’s standing extended well beyond his compatriots. He was a worldwide colossus in strength. This was after being banished to a prison six miles off the coast of Cape Town for more than a quarter century.

Let that sink in for a moment.

It’s a story celebrated by most, but not understood by all.

Those of us who were not old enough to remember the true impact of apartheid should read Mandela’s autobiography to ensure similar human ugliness is not only never repeated, but allowed to blossom in isolation from the world.

A journalism professor dared me to accept that challenge and write a book review for an Editorial Writing course. I had less than 10 days to sift through nearly 700 pages. Like my professor predicted I didn’t finish.

At the time I wrote: “The book is a detailed story of Mandela, from his humble beginning in the Transkei region of South Africa to his ascension to the president of a democratic South Africa.

Published in 1995, the same year he was elected president, this autobiography gives readers a deeper understanding of why Rolihlaha Mandela--he was given the English name of Nelson on his first day of school--was politically active and the root of his activism before his 27 year imprisonment.”

The assignment resulted in an “A”. In my professor’s notes, he explicitly noted his expectation that I finish the book. That summer, after graduation, I did. Each page pulled me closer to the beautiful veld. Each page illuminated a dark era of the 20th century.

Each page unveiled the character that has been on display for decades.

As the weeks and months went by I planned and plotted to see the South Africa Mandela described. That a soccer tournament was being held there in 2010 gave me additional incentive. My one regret from 16 days in South Africa was not visiting Robben Island. My tour was canceled when 30 foot waves stood between the Island and the mainland.

Seeing Robben Island out on the horizon while taking a bus tour on a rainy winter afternoon in Cape Town sent goosebumps down my arms. The mainland is clearly visible; however, the choppy, shark-infested waters likely made Cape Town look further in the distance.

I was 25 at the time. Awe replaced the goosebumps at the thought any person would willingly spend my entire life locked away from their family and friends for their beliefs. The awe turned to appreciation for a man who resisted succumbing to the anger that surely raged inside him. It takes a special person to spend their life fighting injustice, refuse to channel that rage toward the minority whose hateful legislation and ideology segregated South Africa and be a leader for all.

Mandela’s first boss warned him “You will lose all your clients, you will go bankrupt, you will break up your family, and you will end up in jail. That is what will happen if you go into politics.”

He entered anyway. A friend I met on that South Africa trip recently told me Mandela “has always represented love and hope. Hope for something greater. He represents the image of what we hope to be: people of integrity, courage and unconditional love.”

Twenty years after Madiba and F.W. de Klerk won a Nobel Peace Prize for their work in eradicating apartheid the former can no longer breathe life into a nation.

As we mourn Mandela, the best way to respect his legacy would be to emulate his integrity, courage and unconditional love.

Laughs and liveliness,

-Wb

Is the official language of America’s game Chinese?

By Will Brown

Hazma Abdullah eviscerated the National Football League this afternoon on Twitter.

FUCK you @NFL #NFL
— Hamza Abdullah (@HamzaAbdullah21) October 31, 2013

What makes Abdullah’s opinion on the league, and its leaders, any different than the rest of us? For starters, he spent parts of seven years playing for three different NFL franchises. Secondly, his writing featured rage as well as suggestions for how the game can be improved.

Some pundits will call Abdullah’s words a rant because of all the expletives. But remember most of these pundits are employed by companies that stand to lose something if NFL cuts business ties with their organization. (Besides, the sports media has not covered ourselves in glory with our portrayal of passionate black men who make their living playing football. See Bryant, Dez.)

I apologize for the cursing. My mom taught me better than that; But when you visit China you have to speak Chinese.
— Hamza Abdullah (@HamzaAbdullah21) October 31, 2013

Abdullah was not a great player by any means. However, hardcore fans may remember his name from stories done on him and his brother, Husain, a few years ago. The package was about how the two Muslim brothers managed their faith with football during Ramadan.



Nonetheless, Abdullah’s words should resonate with us. The NFL may proclaim its intent is to protect player safety with some of its new rules. But actions certainly speak louder than staged events and press releases.

Remember, this is the same league that pressured ESPN into disassociating itself from a documentary about the concussion issues players are facing during and after their playing careers. This is the same league that will pay $765 million to former players for their health related issues. This is the same league where 58 players have sustained concussions at the midway point of the 2013 season.

Tragically, this is the same league where 18 of the 19 brains of former players that have been studied by the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University have tested positive for CTE, a degenerative and incurable disease whose symptoms can include memory loss, depression and dementia.

Those facts did not stop NFL commissioner Roger Goodell from teaching moms how to tackle safely this week in suburban Chicago. Somehow the league even convinced Dr. Oz to be one of the speakers at this incredulous presentation.

Every player understood the risks of playing football, and we did it, and would do it over again!
— Hamza Abdullah (@HamzaAbdullah21) October 31, 2013

We just thought/assumed we would be taken care of after we were done.
— Hamza Abdullah (@HamzaAbdullah21) October 31, 2013

Abdullah goes on to say Goodell has sold his soul for a dollar; the league intentionally has misdiagnosed injuries to players; players do not report injuries because contracts are not guaranteed and there have been days he has let the thought of suicide creep into his mind.

It’s important to remember Abdullah did not play in an era that was ignorant to the issues of concussions and player safety. He’s 30 years old. In six of the seven years Abdullah played professionally Goodell was the commissioner.

November 19th 2007 against the Titans, I knocked myself out of a game, and they said I lost my contact. WTF?!?
— Hamza Abdullah (@HamzaAbdullah21) October 31, 2013

That sort of attitude is not restricted to the NFL. This fall, the Chronicle of Higher Education published a story that noted coaches and trainers differ on concussion protocols at some major college football programs. One of the schools mentioned in that report was Washington State, which is where Abdullah played before being drafted in 2005.

There has been some spectacular reporting on the long-term health risks of playing football. Abdullah’s words Thursday show just how ignorant most of us are to the sacrifices players make to play a game they grew up loving.

Every player should get a Psych eval and full physical exam upon leaving the game.
— Hamza Abdullah (@HamzaAbdullah21) October 31, 2013

Every player should go see a psychiatrist once a week upon leaving the game.
— Hamza Abdullah (@HamzaAbdullah21) October 31, 2013

Abdullah believes the NFL should pay for those costs, not the players. Before bristling at that belief remember two things: player contracts are not guaranteed and NFL revenues are more congruent with Fortune 500 companies — the league’s $10 billion in revenues in 2012 was more than Bed, Bath & Beyond; Sherwin-Williams and MGM Resorts International — than your typical sports league.

Abdullah’s writings today prove he may be many things. But, he’s certainly not stupid.

Ignorance is not bliss. It's a choice.
— Hamza Abdullah (@HamzaAbdullah21) October 8, 2013

Do you know someone who wants to die?

By Will Brown

Chances are if you watched the Disney Channel in the 90s, you knew who Lee Thompson Young was. He was a good-looking child actor who most girls ogled over.

Young was the main character on the network’s show “The Famous Jett Jackson” an actor who played an actor who lived in a small Southern town where his family and friends kept him humble.

Young committed suicide Monday. He was 29.

Typically, those who believe suicide is an option, are depressed, have a family history of suicide, or a desire to end their life.

In light of Thompson’s death, social media lit up with tributes and surprise from people who grew up believing Jett Jackson was not the type who no longer wanted to live. His death put into perspective the phrase “kill yourself.” Sometimes people throw it out there as an insult, or a way to remind someone to sit down and stop being ridiculous.

After a good friend asked me whether I knew anyone who has killed themselves, I reexamined my levity about Monday’s news, as well my tongue-in-cheek demand that people occasionally “do us a favor and kill yourself.” The fact Young’s mother is a religion professor at my alma mater further shamed me.

Suicide is not a joke, especially for black men. In 2010, 2,144 African Americans committed suicide, more than 80 percent of those deaths were men — like Thompson.

What does Young have in common with the 1936 Heisman trophy winner, Florida’s fifth governor, Bernie Madoff’s oldest son and Meriwether Lewis, one of the men Thomas Jefferson trusted to map out the Louisiana Purchase? Don’t rack your brain thinking about it, the answer is suicide.

Some news outlets do not mention suicides. Others mention someone died, but not their cause of death. Celebrities, and pseudo celebrities, are not the only people who take their lives. Those are the deaths that receive the most attention.

Knowing that 105 people commit suicide daily is not as sobering

If you know someone needs help, offer it. Facebook tributes in death are not as valuable as conversations in life. If you need assistance, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

as the fact there are hundreds of thousands of suicide attempts in America each year.

The American Association of Suicidology reports 38,364 people killed themselves in 2010, the most recent year statistics are available. White men accounted for 27,422 suicides in 2010, far and away the most of any demographic.

Family, friends as well as spiritual leaders are great resources to rely on in most circumstances. Mental health is not one of them. The National Association of Mental Illness found African Americans tend to rely on them, as opposed to licensed professionals. Part of it is due to the stigma surrounding mental health.

Weakness is frowned upon because it does not mesh with the protestant work ethic that so many falsely believe is what built America from an agrarian society to the world’s preeminent superpower. Asking for assistance is not a weakness. It’s an admission of strength.

Of course, all of that is easier said than done. Few want to be labeled as the person who sought counseling for a mental health issue. That means they suffer in silence.

Reality is suicide deaths outnumber murders in the United States by a 2:1 margin. The Centers for Disease Control found there were 16,259 murders in 2010. Suicide may be a more personal form of violence, yet both forms of violence leave people grieving in the finality of death.

Some may argue that suicide is the coward’s way out because other people are left to grieve over a person who decided to end their life. It’s hard to refute that argument. But the next time calling a suicidal person a coward crosses your consciousness; ask yourself how you can help someone who is going through a difficult time. It may save someone’s life.

Laughs and liveliness,

-Wb

Why did it take four plane crashes to unite America?

We were in the locker room talking about how the New York Giants had a black punter. My teammates joked Rodney Williams was proof that I just might make the NFL one day.

I told them I went to bed early Monday night, so I didn’t see much of the Giants 2001 season opener.

Since we were all changing after our first period weightlifting class when this conversation happened it had to be a little after 9 on that Tuesday morning. That is when someone mentioned a plane crashed into the World Trade Center.

Clear as day, I remember dismissing the news, and telling others to do so, because someone tried to down the World Trade Center eight years earlier. I figured it was something similar to that.

As I cleaned up and walked to my second period class it seems there were whispers in the halls about what was going on in New York. But, they were just whispers. It wasn’t until my Algebra teacher turned on the television that we realized September 11, 2001 was not anything like 1993.

Almost everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when it was apparent America was under attack. Time does not erase the memories seared in our minds.

But, as we solemnly remember those who lost their lives through no fault of their own, and especially those who lost their lives trying to save others, let’s not forget the supposed togetherness America displayed in the days and weeks after the attacks.

To me, the enduring lesson of that Tuesday morning in September had nothing to do with “terror”, “patriotism”, “liberty” or other politically loaded terms.  It was our unity.

On a day that shook America to its core I watched a Canadian broadcaster disseminate the news.

The specifics evade me, but that night, while watching Peter Jennings, ABC News cut to a stirring tribute on Capitol Hill. Immediately after the then Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate Majority Leader said their obligatory remarks politicians from both sides of the aisle collectively and instinctively sang “God Bless America” as a sort of defiance to those responsible for attacking America.

In the 11 years since 9/11 I think about how that would never happen today.

This country has become so polarized along political lines. We are apparently incapable of respectfully disagreeing with someone. Our congressional and legislative leaders have been some of the architects of this divisiveness.

If most of us are honest, our elected officials are a reflection of the people they represent. Many of us pull the same tactics in our personal lives, albeit on a far smaller scale.

This summer the Pew Research Center published its 2012 American Values Survey where it found the thing that divides America is not class, or race, or religion, but our politics.

“…The defining change in American politics over the past quarter-century is not in overall public beliefs, but how these beliefs are increasingly being sorted along partisan lines,” is what the Pew study stated. “Today, the partisan bases are more homogeneous and less cross-pressured, and hold more consistently liberal or conservative views across a wider spectrum of values.

This polarization along partisan lines stands in contrast to other social divides such as race, ethnicity, gender, class and religion, all of which remain significant factors, but which have neither grown nor receded in importance.”

Pew’s American Values study has been conducted annually since 1987. This study predates America’s first invasion of Kuwait, the series of terror attacks, domestically and abroad, in the 90s, before 9/11 and before the hyper-polarization of the George W. Bush and Barack Obama presidencies.

Many of us say we will “Never Forget” those who lost their lives on 9/11. And we shouldn’t.

However, the best way to honor the dead may not be to wrap ourselves in the flag and all the self-righteous beliefs that are uniquely American. We would be better served wrapping ourselves in understanding of others, so no one has so much hate in their heart as the 19 terrorists did that Tuesday morning 11 years ago.

Laughs and liveliness,

-Wb

What makes one suspicious?

The adult with a gun and the teenager with Skittles got into a scuffle. One of those gentlemen is dead, while the other is claiming self-defense.

How Skittles, a can of iced tea and $22 make someone threatening is a question a jury should decide. Whether George Zimmerman’s peers will have the opportunity to make that decision is still being investigated.

Zimmerman was the head of a Neighborhood Watch organization in Sanford, Fla. on Feb. 26. Trayvon Martin was a 17-year old fulfilling his younger brother’s request to grab some candy that Sunday evening.

This incident took place in a gated community of an Orlando suburb. Someway, somehow Martin’s presence in this neighborhood was enough to alarm Zimmerman to call police on a non-emergency telephone number.

Per various media reports, by the time police arrived, Martin was shot once and Zimmerman had blood coming from his nose and head.

It’s interesting that Martin was thinking about someone in the moments before he died. Maybe that was why his actions were suspicious. Who thinks about others these days, when it’s more convenient to think about ourselves?

Maybe Zimmerman’s defense of his actions will combine Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law with a quote from Malcom X. “Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone, but if someone puts his hands on you, send him to the cemetery.”

The investigation is ongoing and should be complete in the next week. However, that did not stop the Martin family from hiring a pair of attorney’s and taking their case to the media. Ben Crump, one of two attorneys the Martin family hired, said race is the 600 pound elephant in the room because Zimmerman is white and Martin was black

I beg to differ: the “elephant in the room” is what makes someone look suspicious or threatening? Honestly, ask yourself that question.

Have we become so cloistered that something that if anything is amiss it’s automatically cause to feel threatened?

Could it be someone’s complexion? Maybe, their religion? How about their socio-economic status? Then again, their syntax could be off. And don’t forget people who appearance doesn’t fit our haughty standers of the norm.

Yes, all of those imperfections, and others, must be so threatening that rather than attempt to understand those differences we shutter in fear!

German philosopher Hermann Hesse said it better “if you hate a person you hate something in him that is a part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.”

One could speculate and say Martin probably didn’t fit the mold of non-threatening Negro, which is why Zimmerman shot him. But that wouldn’t make me any better than the people who are hoping the law can be contorted to convict the 28-year-old Zimmerman before his day in court.

Admittedly, the timing of the incident was not lost on me. That same night a heavily tattooed, uneducated black man was running riot in downtown Orlando. But, no one found LeBron James’ presence at the NBA All-Star game all that suspicious.

Maybe that isn’t a good analogy because, if nothing else, the Zimmerman incident illustrates the consequences of inadvertent stereotyping.

Laughs and liveliness,

-Wb

Do you get by with a little help from your friends?

What would think if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Angeline Taylor is a dear and true friend of mine, even though she knows I am not much of a singer.

It’s been this way since June 11, 2007 when both of us were forced to endure a monotonous orientation for our new jobs at the Tallahassee Democrat.

It all started because I started writing jokes on a sheet of paper to relieve the monotony and got a high from her laughter at my highbrow humor.

Sunday, Angie sent me an e-mail telling me a 20-year old woman allegedly killed her good friend, Shannon Washington, for no apparent reason. Considering both of us are proud Florida A&M graduates with ties to the Sarasota-Bradenton area we stewed at the prospect of a friend allegedly putting a knife through her friend’s neck.

Only later did I find out the deceased lived in same apartment complex I lived in during my last three years of school.

When sharing the story with other Rattlers, they collectively expressed similar bemusement. The sentiment was to state their intention to pray for Washington’s family then ask “who would do something like that?”

It is far too early to speculate on why Washington was killed. However, the incident should encourage us to think about who are our closest and truest friends. And only the person staring at you in the mirror can define friendship.

I have gone clubbing with friends. I have confided in friends. I have gone to church with friends. I have consoled friends. I have committed crimes with friends — if you consider underage drinking and changing the prices at a gas station lawbreaking. I have fornicated with a couple female friends. I have played sports with friends.

No true friend has every led me to get mad enough to wish them ill will, or think to execute the harm myself. As my girlfriend continues to remind me, the opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.

In our haste we elevate people to positions in our lives they do not deserve. Other times a person is in our life for a reason or a season. We have to figure out where everyone fits in our fragile emotional existence. Otherwise, some serpent of a person might come up and strike when you need them the most, or least expect it.

Periodically I come up with a purge list; a collection of people whose reason and/or season has passed and its time to detangle my relationship with them — even if it hurts. The first time Angie heard of this list she expressed a bit of amazement at someone in their early 20s eliminating people that by my own definition “don’t teach me anything.”

I learned a lot about people this summer when I didn’t have a job. Many people were incredibly supportive, yet there were some who ignored, or were too busy, to pay attention to calls and messages from 941-961-0044.

A college acquaintance recently stated on her Facebook page “I’ve learned in life that it is a small world…and that positive relationships, whether personal or professional, will take you far.” A sentiment that was rich because more than one person has told me how much this acquaintance uses people. (I didn’t find out the hard way, until after I could no longer write business features about her organization.)

Is this person an awful person for not being collegial after leaving Tallahassee? Not at all, but she is an illustration that not everyone is good for you — even if they are good people.

The book I believe in speaks of the true vine, one in which “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”

Rotted relationships will shrivel and burn when the furnace of life fans flames of failure, bereavement, illness, joblessness and other fiery moments. Friends might not douse the flames, but the best ones bear the burns of someone who is willing to endure an inferno to rescue you.

I get by with a little help from my friends, Yes I get by with a little help from my friends, With a little help from my friends.

Laughs and liveliness,

-Wb

What were your youthful accomplishments?

When he died in a flurry of bullets 15 years ago, I did not know who Tupac Shakur was. I did not know his music, or why his death was just as seminal a moment to some as Kurt Cobain’s suicide two years earlier.

As unbelievable as Shakur’s death may have been to my classmates and millions of others, it may be equally unfathomable that he would have turned 40 today.

Though I knew neither man, nor his work during their lifetimes, I always wanted to accomplish something revolutionary in my lifetime. As I grew older, and became a fan of both, the thought further fermented in my mind.

Everyone wants to be rich and famous in their lifetime, but the thought of winning a Pulitzer Prize before my 30th birthday motivates me more than the money that I could clearly make from winning such an award.

Though neither artist lived to be 30, I always had a sense from watching documentaries on both and listening to their work that their art was more important than money. If Shakur and Cobain happened to make money and earn commercial success while sharing their talents we were richer for it.

In his 25 years Shakur did more than most of us will do in our lifetimes. How many other rappers would be such a cultural phenomenon more than a decade after their assassination to the point the President of the United States found a way to evoke is name during a black tie dinner this spring?

Shakur’s 40th birthday will not be the catalyst for me to go out and spend my remaining days in Tallahassee volunteering or trying to save the city. It’s better to be honest, than lie to simply flatter the memory of a dead man.

The biggest changes within any organization or society do not come from on high, but from the people. Even non-secular countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, and Syria are beginning to realize the exuberance of youth are more powerful than water when channeled properly.

(South Africa realized this with devastating consequences 35 years ago and takes pause each June 16 to celebrate the impact its youngest citizens have on society.)

So while we cannot live without water, it is also a very destructive force. The question, Tupac’s death has led me to ask myself and others is whether your actions, your art, your words are enrich or destroy lives?

Laughs and liveliness,
-Wb