In spite of the times my devotion has been abused, I don't know how to quit baseball. In honor of the end of another season, Powerline has this great post on Frank Robinson.
I still am disgruntled by MLBs inability to make the sport safe from performance-enhancing drug abuse. I would think that by now the players themselves would want ironclad procedures that would protect them from suspicions such as those now hanging over Roger Clemens as he takes his exit bows.
But, I still love the game. At the risk of self-indulgence I repeat a post from earlier in the season. (With extra quotes thrown in.)
People will come, Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn into the driveway, not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. 'Of course we won't mind if you have a look around,' you'll say. 'It's only twenty dollars per person.' They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it; for it is money they have, and peace they lack. They'll walk up to the bleachers and sit in shirt-sleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they had dipped themselves in magic waters; the memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come, Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers; it has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and raised again. Baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and could be again. Oh, people will come Ray. People will most definitely come. From FIELD OF DREAMS
Some of my earliest memories from childhood are of lying in my bed early on twilight summer evenings with the windows open, listening to Harry Carey calling Cardinal’s games over my grandfather’s radio in his bedroom fifty yards north of mine. (We both went early to bed, I because my mom believed children needed their sleep, he because he believed a day had been half wasted if the cows had not been milked by daylight. His radio was turned up loud because he was half deaf as an old man.) I’m not sure I really remember the first time I attended a baseball game I was so young. We went to St. Louis and saw the Cardinals; we went to Kansas City and saw the Athletics. In the car, on the tractor, at home, baseball on the radio has been as much a sound of spring and summer and fall for me as spring frogs and cicadas.
(more below)
I still am disgruntled by MLBs inability to make the sport safe from performance-enhancing drug abuse. I would think that by now the players themselves would want ironclad procedures that would protect them from suspicions such as those now hanging over Roger Clemens as he takes his exit bows.
But, I still love the game. At the risk of self-indulgence I repeat a post from earlier in the season. (With extra quotes thrown in.)
People will come, Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn into the driveway, not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. 'Of course we won't mind if you have a look around,' you'll say. 'It's only twenty dollars per person.' They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it; for it is money they have, and peace they lack. They'll walk up to the bleachers and sit in shirt-sleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they had dipped themselves in magic waters; the memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come, Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers; it has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and raised again. Baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and could be again. Oh, people will come Ray. People will most definitely come. From FIELD OF DREAMS
Some of my earliest memories from childhood are of lying in my bed early on twilight summer evenings with the windows open, listening to Harry Carey calling Cardinal’s games over my grandfather’s radio in his bedroom fifty yards north of mine. (We both went early to bed, I because my mom believed children needed their sleep, he because he believed a day had been half wasted if the cows had not been milked by daylight. His radio was turned up loud because he was half deaf as an old man.) I’m not sure I really remember the first time I attended a baseball game I was so young. We went to St. Louis and saw the Cardinals; we went to Kansas City and saw the Athletics. In the car, on the tractor, at home, baseball on the radio has been as much a sound of spring and summer and fall for me as spring frogs and cicadas.
(more below)
29/09: Unexpected Allies
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
Last night was the opening of the Comanche Fair. Held at the tribal headquarters north of Lawton, Oklahoma, it is dancing, eating, celebration, singing, camping (many in canvas teepees), contests, politiking, talking (in English and in Comanche), browsing vender booths--the national reunion of the Comanche people.
My wife and I went down last night to see the historical pageant, written and directed by a member of our church. It was made up of a series of tableau, tied together by the narration of a grandmother to her granddaughter. The pageant was performed on the grassy area just south of the monument to the Comanche Code-Talkers, which is just south of two rows of stone pillars inscribed with the names of all the Comanches who have served in the US Armed Forces. On the east side of the monuments is a tall flagpole with a large United States flag.
At the end of the evening, the Code-Talkers were honored. During WW2 the United States used tribal language speakers to transmit radio messages on the battlefield. While the Navaho servicemen are more famous, the Comanches served with distinction in Europe, going ashore on Utah Beach, June 6, 1944, and serving in the campaign until V-E Day. Ironic, that the government which had displaced them from their lands and sent their young people off to boarding schools in which they were forbidden to speak their language, received courageous service when duty called.
Fourteen Comanche men served in Europe as Code-Talkers, all now dead. They were represented last night by 14 spears, carried by women in traditional regalia. As the singers sang and drummed, their memories were honored by a "Scalp Song", danced by the women with the spears. After the song descendents of the Code-Talkers were invited into the circle to be honored.
The evening closed with the honoring of all Comanche service men and women, "our warriors" they were called. "War Journey Songs" were sung. A man in Comanche battle dress rode a horse into the light, leading a riderless horse. We all were asked to stand, face the American flag with our hands over our hearts, to honor flag and country.
The Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache in our area did not experience American expansion as an expansion of freedom. They will not celebrate Columbus Day. But, among them there is a love of America, mysterious as it is to me. Enlistment is high among these people and veterans are honored. We don't deserve such allies.
My wife and I went down last night to see the historical pageant, written and directed by a member of our church. It was made up of a series of tableau, tied together by the narration of a grandmother to her granddaughter. The pageant was performed on the grassy area just south of the monument to the Comanche Code-Talkers, which is just south of two rows of stone pillars inscribed with the names of all the Comanches who have served in the US Armed Forces. On the east side of the monuments is a tall flagpole with a large United States flag.
At the end of the evening, the Code-Talkers were honored. During WW2 the United States used tribal language speakers to transmit radio messages on the battlefield. While the Navaho servicemen are more famous, the Comanches served with distinction in Europe, going ashore on Utah Beach, June 6, 1944, and serving in the campaign until V-E Day. Ironic, that the government which had displaced them from their lands and sent their young people off to boarding schools in which they were forbidden to speak their language, received courageous service when duty called.
Fourteen Comanche men served in Europe as Code-Talkers, all now dead. They were represented last night by 14 spears, carried by women in traditional regalia. As the singers sang and drummed, their memories were honored by a "Scalp Song", danced by the women with the spears. After the song descendents of the Code-Talkers were invited into the circle to be honored.
The evening closed with the honoring of all Comanche service men and women, "our warriors" they were called. "War Journey Songs" were sung. A man in Comanche battle dress rode a horse into the light, leading a riderless horse. We all were asked to stand, face the American flag with our hands over our hearts, to honor flag and country.
The Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache in our area did not experience American expansion as an expansion of freedom. They will not celebrate Columbus Day. But, among them there is a love of America, mysterious as it is to me. Enlistment is high among these people and veterans are honored. We don't deserve such allies.
23/09: Birthday of John Coltrane
On this day in 1926 jazz legend John Coltrane was born. (Hat tip to The Writers' Almanac for reminding me of the day.) He died in 1967. His Downbeat biography is here. The first paragraph of the bio sketch attempts to give his importance:
Few artists have been as influential in jazz music as saxophonist John Coltrane. Each of the several major periods of his career produced classic works that remain to this day models for jazz musicians worldwide.
Classic albums include Blue Train, Giant Steps, My Favorite Things, and A Love Supreme. You can hear some of his music at the John Coltrane site here.
For part of his life, Coltrane was addicted to drugs, especially heroin (a scourge among jazz musicians in the '50s) though he did get clean through a rededication of himself to the Christianity of his family and childhood. Following a period of spiritual growth and search, he recorded A Love Supreme, an album that, in the words of one writer, "attests to the power, glory, love, and greatness of God." If you have never heard this album, you have missed a powerful expression of Christian religious experience. His funeral, held at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in New York City, was a powerful service of jazz and worship. A scholarly essay on Coltrane's religion and music is found here.
Here is a portion John Coltrane's own words about A Love Supreme from the original liner notes: (below)
Few artists have been as influential in jazz music as saxophonist John Coltrane. Each of the several major periods of his career produced classic works that remain to this day models for jazz musicians worldwide.
Classic albums include Blue Train, Giant Steps, My Favorite Things, and A Love Supreme. You can hear some of his music at the John Coltrane site here.
For part of his life, Coltrane was addicted to drugs, especially heroin (a scourge among jazz musicians in the '50s) though he did get clean through a rededication of himself to the Christianity of his family and childhood. Following a period of spiritual growth and search, he recorded A Love Supreme, an album that, in the words of one writer, "attests to the power, glory, love, and greatness of God." If you have never heard this album, you have missed a powerful expression of Christian religious experience. His funeral, held at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in New York City, was a powerful service of jazz and worship. A scholarly essay on Coltrane's religion and music is found here.
Here is a portion John Coltrane's own words about A Love Supreme from the original liner notes: (below)
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
Recently I expressed my conclusion that GW Bush holds to a postmillennial hope, whether he is familiar with the term or not. The term "postmillennial" refers to the belief that the return of Christ will be preceeded by an extended time of peace, justice, and prosperity. Those holding this view are optimistic regarding the future, believing that history--over the long term--is being moved toward this bright future. American evangelicals who were so busy founding and operating various reforming societies in the first half of the nineteenth century (reforming prisons and asylums, spreading education and literacy, promoting Sunday-observance and Bible reading, fighting drunkeness and later all use of alcohol, agitating against slavery, etc) were motivated by this belief. The connection to politics, therefore, should be evident. Postmillennialism has affinities, and historic ties, with American Exceptionalism including Manifest Destiny.
Joab commented on this earlier post with a question regarding the support for this doctrine--in other words, how can a sane Christian believe this? I will now try to respond today or tomorrow as the first part of a 4 part series on Christian millennial views, with suggestions on their relation to policial action and cultural engagement. I will try to present each view fairly and strongly. Personal note: I am not a firm adherent of any of these views. I have described myself as a panmillennialist, believing that it will all pan out in the end. I do lean toward amillennialism or postmillennialism, depending mostly on my optimism/pessimism level regarding the human prospect.
For those of you interested in learning more, a good place to start is The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views on Intervarsity Press. Each position is defended by a scholar holding that position who then engages each of the other writers.
Joab commented on this earlier post with a question regarding the support for this doctrine--in other words, how can a sane Christian believe this? I will now try to respond today or tomorrow as the first part of a 4 part series on Christian millennial views, with suggestions on their relation to policial action and cultural engagement. I will try to present each view fairly and strongly. Personal note: I am not a firm adherent of any of these views. I have described myself as a panmillennialist, believing that it will all pan out in the end. I do lean toward amillennialism or postmillennialism, depending mostly on my optimism/pessimism level regarding the human prospect.
For those of you interested in learning more, a good place to start is The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views on Intervarsity Press. Each position is defended by a scholar holding that position who then engages each of the other writers.
08/09: Language and Policy
Confucius held that for society to function in a healthy and orderly way, words must have their proper meanings. He understood that how we speak both reflects and influences how we think and act: unclear language both results from and leads to unclear thinking which results in confused action. A Waco Farmer, and I, have made the same point in regard to the present War and to politics in general. (Farmer offers some historical political examples here.)
For example, I do not use the term "vegetative state" to refer to a patient in a coma. I become disturbed when someone says of a coma patient--"he/she is just a vegetable." Humans are not vegetables. I think this term helps to dehumanize the one in the coma, making it easier for us to terminate care. [I am not arguing for using all available means to prolong life, but that is another post.]
This article from yesterday's Washington Post reports that scientists have discovered surprising brain activity in patients regarded as "vegetative." Evidently we will be needing new standards of testing, and perhaps new terms, for comatose people.
For example, I do not use the term "vegetative state" to refer to a patient in a coma. I become disturbed when someone says of a coma patient--"he/she is just a vegetable." Humans are not vegetables. I think this term helps to dehumanize the one in the coma, making it easier for us to terminate care. [I am not arguing for using all available means to prolong life, but that is another post.]
This article from yesterday's Washington Post reports that scientists have discovered surprising brain activity in patients regarded as "vegetative." Evidently we will be needing new standards of testing, and perhaps new terms, for comatose people.
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
An extremely provocative editorial essay here from the Brussels Journal. The author's thesis:
"To sum it up, it must be said that radical feminism has been one of the most important causes of the current weakness of Western civilization, both culturally and demographically. Feminists, often with a Marxist world view, have been a crucial component in establishing the suffocating public censorship of Political Correctness in Western nations. They have also severely weakened the Western family structure, and contributed to making the West too soft and self-loathing to deal with aggression from Muslims.
Although feminism may have strayed away into extremism, that does not mean that all of its ideas are wrong. The women’s movement will make lasting changes. Women have occupied positions considered unthinkable only a few decades ago. Some things are irreversible."
I am mulling over this essay, and may comment later, but I think it well worth reading.
"To sum it up, it must be said that radical feminism has been one of the most important causes of the current weakness of Western civilization, both culturally and demographically. Feminists, often with a Marxist world view, have been a crucial component in establishing the suffocating public censorship of Political Correctness in Western nations. They have also severely weakened the Western family structure, and contributed to making the West too soft and self-loathing to deal with aggression from Muslims.
Although feminism may have strayed away into extremism, that does not mean that all of its ideas are wrong. The women’s movement will make lasting changes. Women have occupied positions considered unthinkable only a few decades ago. Some things are irreversible."
I am mulling over this essay, and may comment later, but I think it well worth reading.
26/08: The Dark Side of Religion
From the Kansas City Star newpaper, link courtesy of Religion Headlines: "A religious cult leader convicted of killing a family of five from Independence in 1989 will be executed Oct. 10, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Jeffrey Lundgren, 56, was convicted of shooting to death a man, his wife and three daughters. The family had moved from Missouri in 1987 to follow Lundgren’s teachings. He referred to the killings as “pruning the vineyard.”
The case riveted the Kansas City area for months, and memories remain strong with many people today.
Lundgren formed a religious cult after he was dismissed in 1987 as a lay minister of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, today known as the Community of Christ." Read entire article.
More below.
Jeffrey Lundgren, 56, was convicted of shooting to death a man, his wife and three daughters. The family had moved from Missouri in 1987 to follow Lundgren’s teachings. He referred to the killings as “pruning the vineyard.”
The case riveted the Kansas City area for months, and memories remain strong with many people today.
Lundgren formed a religious cult after he was dismissed in 1987 as a lay minister of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, today known as the Community of Christ." Read entire article.
More below.
Bill McClay's absolutely brilliant recent essay for First Things is a must read (linked here).
McClay deals a powerful blow to the facile convention of portraying our current philosophical and political division over life issues as a contest between "right to life" partisans and "culture of death" proponents.
McClay's position: advocates of "[a]bortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide [and] the cannibalization of embryos...do not reflect a desire to promote death...." Specifically, "biotechnological enthusiasts are nothing if not partisans of life, infinitely extensible." The real danger, McClay argues, is that they reflect the common "overwhelming desire of the sovereign individual will to have its way, and to order and manufacture a world it can live in without let or hindrance;" this is "the value that trumps all others." These advocates don't value or promote death; they "trivialize death...because [they reflect a culture that] fails to understand what life is."
McClay also offers an incredibly articulate and concise rationale for valuing the natural and "organic interdependency" of humanity over the culture of individual rights. Consider this sample: "An ailing elderly parent has the right not to be killed, but he does not have the right to be loved. Yet it is one of the central tasks of our humanity that we care lovingly for him and not merely be instructed by the law that we must resist killing him." McClay asserts that "rights-talk" clouds the issue of responsibility.
McClay does not cite the Sermon on the Mount, but, in essence, seeks to release us from the law of entitlement at the same time preaching a much more binding and encompassing Higher Law of duty, interconnectedness and overarching reciprocity.
If you can only read one thing today, I implore you to read this essay in its entirety.
(Thanks to "Tocqueville" for making sure this essay did not slip by me.)
McClay deals a powerful blow to the facile convention of portraying our current philosophical and political division over life issues as a contest between "right to life" partisans and "culture of death" proponents.
McClay's position: advocates of "[a]bortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide [and] the cannibalization of embryos...do not reflect a desire to promote death...." Specifically, "biotechnological enthusiasts are nothing if not partisans of life, infinitely extensible." The real danger, McClay argues, is that they reflect the common "overwhelming desire of the sovereign individual will to have its way, and to order and manufacture a world it can live in without let or hindrance;" this is "the value that trumps all others." These advocates don't value or promote death; they "trivialize death...because [they reflect a culture that] fails to understand what life is."
McClay also offers an incredibly articulate and concise rationale for valuing the natural and "organic interdependency" of humanity over the culture of individual rights. Consider this sample: "An ailing elderly parent has the right not to be killed, but he does not have the right to be loved. Yet it is one of the central tasks of our humanity that we care lovingly for him and not merely be instructed by the law that we must resist killing him." McClay asserts that "rights-talk" clouds the issue of responsibility.
McClay does not cite the Sermon on the Mount, but, in essence, seeks to release us from the law of entitlement at the same time preaching a much more binding and encompassing Higher Law of duty, interconnectedness and overarching reciprocity.
If you can only read one thing today, I implore you to read this essay in its entirety.
(Thanks to "Tocqueville" for making sure this essay did not slip by me.)
Some Thoughts on Same-Sex Practice from Scripture
One of the issues roiling mainline Christianity in the United States is same-sex practice: should it be condemned, tolerated, celebrated? Should those who participate in such practice be disciplined, tolerated, ordained to leadership office? Even my own denomination, the Reformed Church in America (RCA), after disciplining a prominent minister and seminary president for performing a same-sex “wedding” ceremony, voted to conduct a three-year study of the issue.
I wish to offer a few thoughts on same-sex practice from my engagement with Scripture. Traditionally the Bible has been regarded as authoritative by Christianity; even today most mainline denominations have some sort of statement recognizing Biblical authority. So, some thoughts on same-sex practice. (I am refraining from using the terms “homosexual” and “lesbian” because the Bible does not operate from modern psychological assumptions; rather than speaking of homosexuality, it speaks of same-sex sex.) All biblical quotations are from the NRSV translation.
READ MORE BELOW
One of the issues roiling mainline Christianity in the United States is same-sex practice: should it be condemned, tolerated, celebrated? Should those who participate in such practice be disciplined, tolerated, ordained to leadership office? Even my own denomination, the Reformed Church in America (RCA), after disciplining a prominent minister and seminary president for performing a same-sex “wedding” ceremony, voted to conduct a three-year study of the issue.
I wish to offer a few thoughts on same-sex practice from my engagement with Scripture. Traditionally the Bible has been regarded as authoritative by Christianity; even today most mainline denominations have some sort of statement recognizing Biblical authority. So, some thoughts on same-sex practice. (I am refraining from using the terms “homosexual” and “lesbian” because the Bible does not operate from modern psychological assumptions; rather than speaking of homosexuality, it speaks of same-sex sex.) All biblical quotations are from the NRSV translation.
READ MORE BELOW
A few more words of analysis in re my previous post on the Cost of Free Speech.
Ranking the transgressions in discourse:
1. Absolute Worst: Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic tirade. Mel Gibson has the right to assert "Jewish conspiracy" (j'accuse), but he seems at least a century removed and an ocean away from a culture receptive to that line of argument. In fact, his accusations are so apart from any contemporary conversation, he, as I argued previously, faces less severe consequences than George Allen and Andy Young (the other two examples I explored).
2. Pretty Bad: George Allen's verbal engagement with S.R. Sidarth, a twenty-year-old volunteer for Allen's opponent for governor, was not so damning in content. Allen could have called Sidarth "lacaca" or "pacaca" or "zacaca," and the actual meaning (or meaninglessness) of the phrase would have been the same.
The incident itself was much more telling. Allen allowed himself to be drawn into an embarrassing exchange with an expendable representative (a pawn) of the opposition. In distance races, sometimes an opposing team will send out a "rabbit," which is a runner who has no chance of winning the race but who sets a blistering pace in hopes that the other team will run with the decoy and burn themselves out. Senator Allen chased the rabbit. Even if he had made Sidarth look foolish, there was no advantage in it for him.
Is there a double-standard for Republican politicians? Of course. But that is beside the point. Do Republican candidates understand these unique rules of engagement crafted especially for them? They should, if they are going to win. George Allen showed us something: poor political judgment and a lack of discipline. And he is likely to do it again at a more critical moment. Remember the old courtship rule: if the person you are dating reveals who they are, believe them! Allen is out.
3. Also pretty bad: the "niggardly" incident Tocqueville introduced into the conversation (see comments). Again the content is not so damning (not damning at all), but the lack of awareness speaks volumes about one's social IQ. Also, in re my conjecture, it is extremely difficult to reconcile an intellect large enough to encompass such a vocabulary with the lack of foresight as to how the adjective "niggardly" would be received in certain circles.
If Pamela Anderson ever becomes the honorary president of PETA, let's refrain from calling her the "titular" leader of that organization.
4. Impolitic but more sad than outrageous: Young and his comments singling out Jews, Koreans and Arabs. As I said before, it will be very difficult to disprove Young's assertions historically. Of course, it is illuminating that Young chose not to stand and fight when caught and confronted with his violation of the new code of civility. He backed up immediately. Also, it seems noteworthy that this story, of the four mentioned, made, by far, the least-felt impact on society and the news cycle. Did Young's race inoculate him to a degree from a major cause celebre?
Ranking the transgressions in discourse:
1. Absolute Worst: Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic tirade. Mel Gibson has the right to assert "Jewish conspiracy" (j'accuse), but he seems at least a century removed and an ocean away from a culture receptive to that line of argument. In fact, his accusations are so apart from any contemporary conversation, he, as I argued previously, faces less severe consequences than George Allen and Andy Young (the other two examples I explored).
2. Pretty Bad: George Allen's verbal engagement with S.R. Sidarth, a twenty-year-old volunteer for Allen's opponent for governor, was not so damning in content. Allen could have called Sidarth "lacaca" or "pacaca" or "zacaca," and the actual meaning (or meaninglessness) of the phrase would have been the same.
The incident itself was much more telling. Allen allowed himself to be drawn into an embarrassing exchange with an expendable representative (a pawn) of the opposition. In distance races, sometimes an opposing team will send out a "rabbit," which is a runner who has no chance of winning the race but who sets a blistering pace in hopes that the other team will run with the decoy and burn themselves out. Senator Allen chased the rabbit. Even if he had made Sidarth look foolish, there was no advantage in it for him.
Is there a double-standard for Republican politicians? Of course. But that is beside the point. Do Republican candidates understand these unique rules of engagement crafted especially for them? They should, if they are going to win. George Allen showed us something: poor political judgment and a lack of discipline. And he is likely to do it again at a more critical moment. Remember the old courtship rule: if the person you are dating reveals who they are, believe them! Allen is out.
3. Also pretty bad: the "niggardly" incident Tocqueville introduced into the conversation (see comments). Again the content is not so damning (not damning at all), but the lack of awareness speaks volumes about one's social IQ. Also, in re my conjecture, it is extremely difficult to reconcile an intellect large enough to encompass such a vocabulary with the lack of foresight as to how the adjective "niggardly" would be received in certain circles.
If Pamela Anderson ever becomes the honorary president of PETA, let's refrain from calling her the "titular" leader of that organization.
4. Impolitic but more sad than outrageous: Young and his comments singling out Jews, Koreans and Arabs. As I said before, it will be very difficult to disprove Young's assertions historically. Of course, it is illuminating that Young chose not to stand and fight when caught and confronted with his violation of the new code of civility. He backed up immediately. Also, it seems noteworthy that this story, of the four mentioned, made, by far, the least-felt impact on society and the news cycle. Did Young's race inoculate him to a degree from a major cause celebre?
