DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... LeBron James Opens School in Akron

Okay Swish, we disagree.

Well, I think your premise is completely wrong. We know a lot more about LeBron's politics than Kaep's. LeBron was campaigning non-stop for HRC last year. Kaep didn't even vote. We still can't even agree that kneeling during the anthem is not protesting the flag. We know why LeBron, Chris Long and JJ Watt's charity work is plastered all over sports media, but why Kaep's, Malcolm Jenkins and Kenny Stills' charity work is disregarded. It's the same reason our white friends have no problem quoting Martin at us, but call Malcolm derogatory names. It's the reason why they feed their children nightmares about Huey P Newton and the Black Panther party.

A question for the white posters of DT. What do you find so resonating about how LeBron talks about criminal injustice and rolls your eyes when Kaep speaks?

You know, Charles Manson's downfall was taking The Beatles too literally.

I don’t.

Completely wrong? LMAO

I wasn't talking just about Kap.

I can see this is a lost cause w/some of you.

That's fine.

You can't specifically ask for the minority opinion and then lash out at the minorities for giving you their opinions.

Why do we not hear about the good that NFL players do? Demario Davis and Benjamin Watson have done great things in Louisiana, but I bet you didn't know that. You should read into the two former Browns.

CHS, you told me you weren't black. And I didn't know you were a teacher.

Are you? Eh, who the hell cares. You could be a martian dwarf for all I care.

I never said I was black. I did say I was a minority, because I am hispanic. I am also not a teacher, but I have taught in schools.

I am not a Martian, but I do like Lil Wayne.

Lashing out? Is that what I did?

Furthermore, I asked a question that you did not answer. Instead, you and Swish changed the narrative.

Btw----------Warrick Dunn was an NFL player.

Lol you know how many people won’t get that last line lmfao

I answered your question directly. You’re the one starting false narratives now.

I owned his jersey growing up LOL

Also, I still know a lot more about Warrick Dunn's politics than Marshawn Lynch. What do you want to talk about Warrick Dunn on? How he builds homes? How his mother was a cop? What's Marshawn's politics besides yolking a golf cart and being real? Why is civility such a requirement for you to take someone seriously?

Hate to say it, kneeling during the anthem isn't cool. You have that huge flag stretched out across that field, held taught by military members representing people that are dead, crippled, impotent, mentally tortured by their experiences, you name it, all for a subject that has been discussed on these boards and the old one ever since I joined. That'll be 10 years ago this fall.

Kaep brought attention to himself. The issue already has huge amounts of attention.

Lebron carries himself above it. He's not disrespecting the military so there's no angst there. He's not sweeping with the broad brush at one side or the other, he's pointing at the issue and being an example. A good one.

Jesus said, 'Let your light so shine...'

Lebron is shining.

Why do you resort to lying?

You didn't answer my question about WHY mainstream media, the NFL, Donald Trump, etc pay more attention to the guys who kneel than LeBron's good acts.

You got butt hurt because I dared mention the kneelers.

Save your BS for someone else. You are the same as Vambo and 30. You're just the other side of it.

Okay.

I know it was someone else that said you were a teacher. (was it nelson?)

Anyway, just questions. I'm a white, heterosexual male, Christian, father of 2, divorced once, but currently married for just under 22 years. (hey, it's tough to not get divorced when the B tells you she's pregnant with someone else s kid, and you go to counseling, and she doesn't.)

You not liking the response isn’t the same thing as me not answering your question.

One would assume a teacher would know that.

You're resorting to spinning things. You were the one who said Why do we not hear about NFL players doing this when I specifically mentioned Warrick Dunn.

You are trying to win an argument and not trying to be reasonable.

That's fine, but I'm done conversing w/you because you are not trying to have a discussion. You're trying to win one.

This is not answering the question.

He's a hispanic/teacher/lawyer/day trader/college student/communist.

Whatever that is.

I don't think they make checkboxes on forms for that.

“The only difference is he didn’t kneel”

The answer is literally right in your freaking face.

Warrick Dunn hasn't played football in over a decade...

I am a hispanic, cishet male , who is agnostic, single and a child of divorce (and realize that some people just aren't meant to cohabitate with each other despite their strong romantic feelings)

I bring a stamp

Look, you completely misunderstood my point due your sensitivity issues about kneelers. That is not my problem. It's yours.

I was trying to promote the rights of minorities and other at-risk groups in this thread and you are to narrow-minded and biased to see it.

I'm sorry I took the time to try and help.

How did I misunderstand you when I answered your question directly?

At this point, It seems like your goal here wasn’t to actually get an opinion from minorities, but to lecture us.

My support for Lebron, kap, Lynch and others isn’t dictated by whatever vers thinks.

You didn't answer the question directly. You changed the narrative.

And if you think my intent was to lecture you..........then we are done talking.

I was hoping for an intellectual conversation. It did not happen. Life goes on.

Why do you think that we know more about Warrick Dunn's work, who hasn't played in the NFL for 10 years, than players who are actually playing in the NFL? Why does winning a Super Bowl and getting Policy matters ironed out in cities not get any attention?

I'd like to address this statement, if I may.
I'd like to cast light upon it from a different angle- and maybe see where the shadow stretches.

1. I was encouraged to be the best I could be.

I had the benefit (and for some people, the luxury) of two dedicated parents who never let up on us. Every day was a lesson in character, courage, forbearance. They led by example. And we had the best teachers two kids could ever want. When I scammed my first cello at the age of 9, Pops drew me aside and said:

"Since you've found a way to get this thing, here's what you are going to do. You are going to dedicate yourself to this and take it seriously. You are going to do every single thing your teachers tell you to do. You are going to give it your best effort every single time you sit down behind it. You are going to continue playing it when it stops being new and fun. And you are going to play it until you graduate from high school. I don't care what you do about it after that but understand me, boy- I don't raise no quitters."

2. 9th grade: New private teacher (again... sigh).

Peter Howard. BGSU. 1.5 hours away.
Ex- Cleveland Orch.
Ex-Oberlin Conservatory.
Concertizing soloist/lecturer/master class artist.
World Famous.

Momz drove me up to play my audition (yes- Peter didn't just take students over the phone. If you played for him and didn't make the cut, you studied with his wife Mary until you were ready, yo-). At the end of the audition, Peter told Momz: "I want to teach your son. He has no weaknesses that can't be fixed and he can take this as far as his desire and discipline allows." I was floored/walking on Cloud 50. Then Momz asked him his teaching fee.

When Peter dropped his hourly rate in Real Numbers, I saw My Mom visibly swallow. Hard. She blinked a couple times, then regained her poker face. I watched her fill out the check, tear it from the book and hand it over.

"Thank you, Dr. Howard-"
"Please- just Peter... or [looks at me] Mr. Howard."
"...Mr Howard, but we are a family who has learned to get by on what my husband's salary can provide. We would love to give our son the opportunity to study with you, but will have to find some other option. If you have the name of another teacher or two, I'd be gratef-"

"Please stop, Mrs. Clemens. I'm not about to risk your son's future on someone else's teaching abilities. You are going to bring him back to me next week, and the week after that. Money is money. Music is his future. Pay me what you can afford, and leave his education to me."
"Oh, Mr Howard, I couldn't-"
"Yes you can, and you will. Your son is my student now."

And with that, this world renowned master slashed his rate in half, saying (with a wink):
"Besides... my wife is about to graduate one of her students up to me. He's a rather dull player, but he's the son of a rich doctor up in Toledo. I'll just charge his dad double."

________________

Fast-Forward:

I'm a professional in Toledo. I take on a new student. Gary. Back then, I was teaching out of my home. Doorbell rings/I answer. I open the door to a guy who looks like Santa Claus in bib overalls. His son is holding a 3/4 size cello in a canvas bag, and is wearing some pretty threadbare clothes. I ask them to sit down in the living room, so we can get the preliminaries out of the way. Turns out, the family had just moved here from SE Ohio. Foothills of the Appalachians. Dirt poor/moved here because a relative found work for Gerry.

"How much do you charge, sir?"
"I charge what my clients can pay."

And I slashed my rate in half, without the scene that took place between Mom and Peter.

3. 3 years later, the Symph starts up a ed program. Low-income kids get music lessons from symph members at a reduced fee. $40/hr turns into $15/hr. Through a private donor's grant, Symph reimburses the outstanding $25. When our quarterly vouchers are to be turned in, I get a frantic call from Joan in the office. "We need your vouchers, Clem. Payroll is on a deadline!"

"No vouchers, Joan. Take every dime you were to send to me... and roll it back over into the working account. I'm OK teaching for 15 and even $7.50, if it means signing up more poor kids. The school is more important than my money."
_____________________

I taught Gary from 7th grade through graduation. Never charged his fam over $15/per the entire time. Hooked them up with Joan when the SymphEd program got started, and charged them 7.50 during his Start High School years. Sent him off to Baldwin-Wallace on an Ed scholarship, with cello performance as a minor.

I taught Danni for $7.50 from 6th grade through graduation. A sweet, enthusiastic Af/Am girl being raised in a Single Parent Home. Dana (her Mom) was determined to give Danielle and Arielle the education she was still trying to get for herself when she found the Symph School.

It was Clemmy who diagnosed Danni's Dyslexia after 3-4 months of cello lessons, and jump-started Danni's 'specialized education program' that led to her remedial ed program and subsequent scholarship admission to Maumee Valley Country Day School . Danni eventually graduated MVCDS, and matriculated at nearby Lourdes U.

Clemmy Never turned in a voucher/never asked for acknowledgement.

____________________________

I'm posting this eye-bleeder to offer a different POV, My Friend.

You assert that "you have to be the greatest and try to be like Martin for anyone to follow your journey"... but I assert otherwise.

I have taught/educated/mentored hundreds of kids over 4 decades of dedicated human interaction. And I didn't try to be like Martin. I didn't try to be Larger Than Lie.


I simply took what I loved, focused it with My Father's marksmanship, expanded my understanding of purpose through Peter's worldliness, made it personal through My Momz... and expressed it to the noobz who came to me for direction.

_________________

The World truly does make progress by the efforts of our Kings, Gandhi's and Madibas. But She also makes that slow, incremental progress that is so essential to daily life borne of the efforts of those unheralded foot soldiers who lift up America's bootstraps from the heels that those straps are attached.

Gary was the son of a coal miner.
Danni was the daughter of an Af/Ambinner-city single mom.

People like LeBron are making things happen on a macro scale.
People like Clemdawg are trying to make this happen, face to face.

America needs both, if this is to work.

.02

Classic Clem post.

Clem writes the missing chapter from Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Seriously brother, you need to write a memoir.

This was stirring. Big as LBJ is, money and success, he gets its scale and knows worth.

So big, some folks lose track that he is on his own path, too. That the finest part of that path is his choice to journey, and that destination is always secondary.

No act of kindness is ever wasted. I wish him strength and luck and success in these efforts.

I see your point about LeBron Vers, and I agree he is doing very good things while remaining dignified in his approach. However the 'kneelers' are not the issue either. They are in their own way taking a national stand against inequality in law enforcement against blacks. That is good too, and they are being vilified by those who would suppress that message.

LeBron's interview the other day was very good. He is undoubtedly very smart and diplomatic in trying to accomplish the things (good things) he is trying to do FOR THE POOR, not just black community. We could use some leadership with his qualities that's for damn sure.

I also really liked how he handled the questions about Trump and simply saying he wouldn't sit across from him (legitimize Trump's positions). BRILLIANT!

https://www.si.com/sportsperson/2017/12/06/colin-kaepernick-charity-giving-donations

Where Colin Kaepernick donates.


One example......


Kevin Livingston was driving home with his daughter when he received a random call one Saturday morning last April: Colin Kaepernick has something for you. How far away are you?

Livingston runs a charity, 100 Suits for 100 Men, that provides business attire for job seekers who have recently been released from jail or suffered hardship, and after he dropped off his daughter, he raced to the Queens parole office, where he keeps a desk. Kaepernick was waiting for him in his SUV, where he’d been sitting for almost an hour. The QB stepped out wearing lime-green sneakers and a black T-shirt emblazoned with a panther, lugging two overstuffed cardboard boxes toward a glass door marked STAFF ONLY. He opened a box, pulled out a gray, custom-made three-piece suit, draped a striped tie over the jacket and posed for a few cellphone pics, flashing a smile. One of those photos became an Instagram post, and that post went viral.

Amen! Damn brother... MrTed says Chicken Soup for the Soul, I say Food for the Universe! If we all did our part it would be a different world. You're an inspiration, my friend.

I don't think that’s necessarily true. They all get pretty much equal media attention. It’s how it’s viewed, positively or negatively. Eyes of the beholder.

That being said Labron is bigger than life. He’s the NBA’s biggest star. Dunn was a big part of the NFL in his day. They’ll always get the benefit of doubt. You see, the man will always side with his boy that performs at the highest levels. If you don't produce boy, don’t even think about crossing us or we’ll have you blackballed.

This school will fail if JR Smith is the guidance counselor.

Or if he is in charge of keeping track of when the periods end.....

"this some bs, we been in home room for 3 days!"

I hope this doesn't have anything to do with teen pregnancy.

The students are 3rd and 4th graders.

sigh. come on vers damn.