The Pervasive Presence of Prejudice

I have been watching the talk shows about the new "42" biography of Jackie Robinson, the first black man to play major league baseball.   This was a decade before Rosa Parks and two decades before the speech by Martin Luther King, Jr.   Yes, good and bad, we build upon the work of others.  Jackie Robinson made his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.   He did it by going out every game, taking his licks of career and prejudice, and taking a stand on the mound.

I want to see the film.   It has been seen in the White House and viewed by Mrs. Robinson with the President and First Lady and the Robinson children. Someone said in an interview, "Good men win games; great men change games".   I would add:  "Great men also stand a good chance of losing the whole ballgame along the way."

Prejudice is so ingrained in our society that it is now being defined on the Hill in Washington in the issues of gun control and immigration.  We have a constant pervasive presence of prejudice that has infected the masses who say, in so many ways, "If you don't look like us and you don't talk like us, and if you don't believe like us, then you need to find another space.  This belongs to 'us'".   Jackie Robinson stood up and took the heat so that the next player could step out on the field without being booed or tripped as he was running the bases.    Did he expect to run a permanent home run?  Heck no, go see the movie.  It is one play and one player at a time!

But it is our time now.   It is the only time we are in the game!