Dakota Beacon

Icons, Protestors and a Green Monster... August 19th


We have been in Boston this week. Cobblestone streets, The squawk of sea gulls. Bracing salt filled breezes to remind one that the ocean is just over yonder-wherever you go there is something that stirs the soul.


Our youngest son is with us and has one thing on his mind-baseball and Fenway Park.


"Iconic" is the word he used to describe the experience of sitting in the green bleachers - the 37' high wall some 310 feet from home plate looms like a "Green Monstah" (that's New Englander for monster) to remind the batter just where he is and what he's up against. 


Fenway is one of the last of the old parks - well over a hundred years old.ÿ Here they play outside with no back up retractable roof - so when the forecast was rain for Friday night and the Yankees were in town - well you can imagine what we talked about.


I had a meeting in Dallas so Deone and Austin walked the freedom trail, encountered some peaceful protesters and ate gigantic slices of Sal's pizza in the Boston Commons which they would be warned to avoid on Friday or Saturday. 


Some not so peaceful protesters were allegedly coming to town.ÿ Nothing too unusual for this town, right?


However, the interviews I watched and what I heard didn't sound much like the voices I had listened to as the monuments and graveyards and reminders of an earlier day spoke from the past. 


"We hold these truths to be self evident - that all men are created equal..."


"The sun never rose on a cause of greater worth"


"A government made for the people, managed by the people...."


"Tyranny like hell is not easily conquered..."Etc. etc.


Why did I feel so much differently emerging from Fanueil Hall where a large painting of Daniel Webster and John Calhoun in vigorous debate speaks of freedom to disagree, than when I heard the tenth news commentator tell me in "his words" that Steve Bannon was a racist and a barbarian?


Why? 


Because on the one hand, these are the well - thought out defenses and hard won privileges of liberty - the freedom to express views in an informed and civilized manner.ÿÿ


These others are the words (or more or less nonsense) of the uninformed and clueless.


How does someone stand up for Islamic terror and try to defend the helpless bystander from the wicked American white supremacist whom he compares to Hitler and the Nazis?


If I had the answer to that dilemma, beyond an unsubstantiated opinion likely to become an incendiary comment, I'd run for office.


For now, I think I'll go to the closest tavern and have a Sam Adams.


Cheers,


Gary & Deone


P.S. The baseball game was more than either my son or I could have asked for.ÿ If an icon is a window or portal to another dimension, this experience was that and the proverbial cloud with a silver lining all in one. 


In the midst of the doom and gloom of the nightly news and cloudy weather, at least at Fenway Park last night, beer and baseball combined to remind us that no matter how dark things look, good times will never seem so good - especially if the Red Soxÿwin the Pennant!