Curtis Blair (left) and fellow referee Monty McCutchen work an NBA preseason game last year. | Courtesy of Curtis Blair
The phone rang about 3:30 p.m. Monday at Curtis Blair's Richmond home.
The former Patrick Henry High School basketball standout saw the 212 area code on caller ID. He answered, assuming it was a telemarketer.
It wasn't.
John McCain has done it again. He did the unexpected. Mitt Who!? Tim Whatever?
Nah, the man -- or actually WOman -- picked by the maverick Arizona senator to run as his vice presidential running mate is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Known to fight corruption and government waste, Palin enjoys the same reputation in Alaska as McCain enjoys nationally.
I like McCain, but I understand why "Dan," a strident Bush supporter who called me Thursday, suggested strongly he doesn't really trust the Republican presidential nominee fearing he'll say whatever he needs to say now and then do whatever he wants if he gets to the White House.
This bombshell move has honked off Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, who now realize they were strung along as "decoys."
But back to us mere mortals, who actually can keep count of the numbers of houses we own: What does Palin's selection do for the race? Will she draw the vote of disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters McCain's way in November?
Or will it backfire because Hillary backers will see it as a transparently patronizing move, insulted that McCain thinks they'll vote for a woman, any woman?
s
Addendum
Removed from the cloud of deadline, I've now had some time to think about McCain's move. It's politically shrewd. Palin's addition brings another twist to an already exciting 2008 presidential campaign. It's a different campaign with a woman on the ticket and makes the Obama campaign have to adjust.
Tonight, Barack Obama becomes the embodiment of dreams that reach across time to Westside Elementary School in Roanoke.
When the Illinois senator accepts the Democratic nomination for president in Denver, he'll do so 45 years to the day of the Rev. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech that spoke of the full inclusion of blacks in the American fabric.
Undoubtedly, Robert Kennedy was accused of dreaming when he said during a 1961 interview that just as his Irish-Catholic brother had become president, a black person could be president in 40 years.
If you watched CNN last evening during Hillary Clinton's speech, you undoubtedly caught a fleeting glimpse of former Roanoke City Councilwoman Linda Wyatt. It was nice to see a homegirl, if only for a nanosecond.
In typical fashion, Linda was about business. She wasn't mugging for the camera or waving a placard. In fact, I'm pretty sure she didn't know she was on television. She was sitting there listening to the speech when the camera did a quick closeup of her. I enjoyed seeing a familiar face in the crowd, other than the rich and famous.
I'll try to get up with Linda on Wednesday and will post any reaction she received from adoring former constituents who saw her on the tube.
s
Stupid grown folks ban 9-year-old Jericho Scott from pitching because he's too good. Seems the kid's fastball tops out at 40 mph. He throws so hard that the youth league in his New Haven, Conn., hometown told him to pack it in and go home.
How stupid is that? In an era when kids need all the positive re-enforcement they can get, adults penalize a child for doing something right? This is beyond stupid. It's absurd.
If the boy were in Roanoke and had a 1.3 grade point average, he'd be welcomed onto the team.
s
Some of you may be familiar with the tragic death of 89-year-old George Rogers, whom I've written about in the preceding column (Violence: when is enough, enough?)
Mr. Rogers lie dead in his home for four days before his body was discovered. Someone raised a legitimate point: Why did it take so long for somebody to notice something awry? Why have we gotten away from looking out for each other?
Let's start a dialogue about neighbors. Sure, we say cynically that "good fences make good neighbors." But what happened to the days of the fictional Gladys Kravitzes, who kept an eye out?
I'm not suggesting that we should always be in someone's face, constantly on their doorstep borrowing the proverbial cup of sugar. But we don't even see our neighbors anymore, let alone be at least familiar with their daily pattern. I'm as guilty as most.
What have we as a society lost as a result of our lack of "neighborliness"?
s
Sometimes, we need the tragedy of death to wake us up.
I never had the pleasure of knowing George Rogers, the 89-year-old Roanoker who was a local institution. He was found dead in his Northwest home last week.
But Rogers was someone I should have known. That was evident from the outpouring of palpable shock, grief and reverence shown him in death.
John McCain and..
a) Tom Ridge
b) Joe Lieberman
c) Mitt Romney
Barack Obama and ..
a) Joe Biden
b) Evan Bayh
c) Tim Kaine
d) After the visceral reaction to an earlier entry, dare I ask Hillary Clinton?
(By special request:)
Bob Barr and ...
a) Wayne Allyn Root
NONE OF THE ABOVE?
McCain should ignore the party's political true believers and pick a pro-choice candidate. Come on, Maverick, reclaim those old ways!
By the way, the hard-right wingers should realize their diminished influence. They let Karl Rove snooker them with talk of "moral" issues such as gay marriage and abortion. That blinded them to the pressing issues of war, economics and health care. The result has been a no-more-moral and increasingly shrinking middle class. Go figure.
s
Below is much of the text of a speech I delivered last weekend to a group of mothers. They are working to bring greater awareness to the violence that corrodes our society.
Violence is a growing worry in America and has reached crisis level in the black community. It has become society's method for settling disputes.
This spring, I spoke with sociology professor Carl Taylor of Michigan State University. Taylor, 57, is an expert on youth violence. He and I talked about its prevalence.
He looked back longingly at the days when folks used their fists -- not a gun or a knife -- to settle their differences.
"We had a good fight -- if there is a good fight," he said.
Who is this group of people that persuaded school officials to put in play a kinder, gentler academic policy for student athletes?
I don't know, but in the end, that vocal minority won.
In her signature plainspoken style, Michigan native Shanna Flowers peels away the layers and gets to the heart of the issues. No pretense. Just straightforward perspective. Shanna writes about local people whose circumstances reflect decisions made as near as City Hall or as far away as the halls of Congress. Other times, she weighs in on a topic because it is incredibly ridiculous. Or heartening. Or fascinating. Read Shanna's column three days a week, Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, at roanoke.com
