Was it just a coincidence I was in a 1-on-1 basketball game between and black guy and white guy at 10 this morning? Hit the gym early on this holiday and just by chance I changed course to the b-ball gym to warmup before getting with other exercises. I'm not sure what the chances were for it to unfold the way that it did but I found it pretty peculiar; on this day.
How would have Mr. King viewed this game. Besides the obvious; not enough height, not enough skill. It takes me back to a childhood game of football, at my grandmothers apt complex, between two boys playing as if it were the Super Bowl. One of our games ended with my mother taking me to the emergency room with a smashed hand. And the next visit to grandma's took me back to the grass square trying to find my buddy for another game.
The most interesting and innocent aspect of these games was that there were two boys playing an American game, a game of football. We didn't see it any other way. We knew the ball, we knew the rules, and we knew we had to tackle the other before they made a touchdown. And while our parents, grandparents, and the folks who watched may have seen something else, that was all we knew. Two boys playing football.
Mr. King had a dream which would transcend race and politics. He had a vision of the evolution of the greatest country, our America. Martin Luther King Jr looked to bring people together with their eyes wide open while still being blind. Had he been in audience I'm pretty sure he would have viewed the game as it was being played; two guys playing a game of basketball.
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