Fields of Dreams

A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.
Gloria Steinem

If you would, please take the minute to think about the most demeaning, embarrassing, worthless, humiliating, degrading situation ever bestowed upon you. Take another minute, in fact, take two. Multiply that “situation” by 10! Now, take a knife and drive it through the heart of your self esteem. If you’ve followed this traumatic exercise you are now half way down the dark alley of understanding the psyche of a rape victim. And, no matter how normal a person may appear on the outside, these victims will probably never (fully)recover from this on the inside -- literally.
As horrific a violation as rape is to one’s human rights and dignity; there is a legal aspect that is equally discomforting. And for Ghetto Proverbs regulars – you probably already guessed, this is where our frightening discussion will begin.


Ben Roethlisberger is a 28-year-old player for the famed Pittsburgh Steelers and the youngest starting quarterback to ever win a NFL Super Bowl.
Mike Tyson is a 43-year-old retired boxer and is the youngest undisputed heavyweight champion to ever to win the WBC, WBA & IBF world heavyweight titles – the sport’s Super Bowl equivalent.


If you just landed from outer space, welcome. Please note, there are two sets of laws that govern life in America. There are rules for the rich and rules for the poor. And if you are a highly-compensated public figure, those rules are a tad bit blurry. If you are a highly-compensated white male, that blur is a mirage. If you are a black male, that mirage just became a nightmare. If you are a woman, start packing for outer space.


Roethlisberger and Tyson have more in common than two highly sought-after, highly visible, and highly-compensated sports icons. They both reached their (public) low by raping a woman (in private).

In March 2010, Ben Roethlisberger met a 20-year-old female college student in a nightclub in Milledgeville, Georgia. After a couple of hours (and a few drinks) he was having sex with her in the club’s bathroom, while his bodyguards manned the door -- manned being the operative word.


In July 1991, Mike Tyson met an 18-year-old female beauty queen at a pageant in Indianapolis, Indiana. Later that evening the woman graciously accepted a chauffeur-driven limousine ride to Tyson’s hotel room. After her arrival (roughly 1:36am), the two had sex, while Tyson’s bodyguard manned the door -- manned being the operative word.



The spectators’ accounts leading to both “proceedings” are almost as unbelievable as the [eventual] outcome. Roethlisberger’s on-lookers flagged Ben’s vile, contemptible, and intrusive in nature; while Tyson’s observers applauded his very candid, explicit, straight-forward “goal(s).” Both playas had their share of tainted off-the-field incidents, but nothing close to rape.

The college student and the beauty queen both filed rape charges; after unveiling horrific accounts of their respective recollections. For their “participation” Ben got community service, while Tyson got 10 years – or one year for every hour the jury deliberated. Tyson was released after serving three years...




... perhaps one year for every side to a story.







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1 love,
Ray Lewis

The Rebirth of a Nation

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. Abraham Lincoln

It’s a warm, moist, muggy pre-summer afternoon weekend in Atlanta. Naturally, the malls are predictably packed with a high degree of traffic searching for non-essential items to add to Visa’s very essential assets.

And, so goes a nation once built to lead; now struggling to follow, and teetering in the final stages of irrelevance. America’s reality is being swallowed in a flat-screen of scripted, high definition reality. Entertainment is being masked as news and [would-be] news journalists are being assigned to chase kids hiding in air balloons; or finding Tiger Woods’ “playmates,” or hyping American Idols – the latter being the saddest of oxymoronic. Meanwhile “Rome” is burning in a blanket of apathy stitched by a pyromaniac. How on (what’s left) of the earth did we get here?

Charred are the IBMs of the American fabric. Imploded is the once-leading car manufacturer, General Motors. Grounded is wing-less United Airlines. Exploded is the World Trade Center. And, while the rubble is gone, the rumblings remain. What were once financial staples in the world’s fabric of business is now an ad-hoc of infamous mergers and emerging uncertainties.



I truly believe that America’s deepest desperation has reached record proportions and the voices of reason are drowning or being sponsored by bloody oil spills. The growing gap of “who matters,” “who cares,” and “who’s left” is widening with every corporate merger – which increases the triage of the unemployed.

America’s triangular structured wealth chart is getting pointier and the circular vision of saving the poor is spinning endlessly in a shore of political pessimism. Entertainment isn’t even entertaining anymore. Bands are synthetic replications birthed from an expensive suit. Movies are 3-D sequels of the top box office receipts from the week prior, while sports are the real estate version of “Let’s Make a Deal” or “Pin the Tail on the Lebron."

The question atop of the “100,000 Pyramid” is, who is going to step to the podium of truth and justice? Who holds the band-aid to impartiality? Who? When is greatness going to ignite this new millennium and save our souls – or (at the very least) resurrect soul music? You know…, there was a time when the former provoked the latter.



Where is King’s DNA? I still see his bloody murderers – in fact, Barack is perched at the tip of their organizational chart. How’s that for irony? Who is going to reveal the mask of perception and plow the road of redemption?

Naturally, Jesus could, but half of His so-called followers would probably be conflicted if His attire was too casual when He returned. Again.

Barack could – and there are more than a handful of "his" citizens that believe Obama is doing all he can right now -- especially given his “inheritance.” I interpreted that as a rosy-colored no! The fact that a LARGE portion of his blueprinted campaign strategy was funded, designed and filed in the board rooms of British Petroleum…, well, you just have to question that silly, unrealistic optimism. Instead of putting my faith in the hands of people that continue to defecate on my head, while calling it fertilizer… I (instead) turn to the largest force on earth; the force of which they’d be no earth. I call on the woman -- mother of earth.



Now I know that most women don’t even like women…, but this rebellion is different. I know no one has been more marginalized, abused, misunderstood, and mistreated than the very species that breathes daily life into the world in nine month intervals. I know being a mother, wife, or First Lady is one of the more thankless jobs on earth (you can search the Bible for further confirmation).
Sadly, aside from Mother’s Day and the occasional “Hi, Mom” from an attention-deprived athlete; what universal honor can woman hang her hat on? In fact, this sexist nation isn’t even courageous enough to elect a female president. History has proven some of the world’s greatest decisions are made with the total exclusion of women, yet women are always there to wipe the tears of their fallen counterparts.
It is for these reasons (and so many other untold ones) that women should conspire to change the world… literally.

No society can exist without the strength, love, charm, compassion, birth canal or maternal instincts of a woman.

So, here’s the plan.

What do you think would happen if women banded together and stopped having sex with men for one year? Bedroom Boycott -- the headlines would read. [At times the media can be so creative].

Never let a problem to be solved become more important than the person to be loved.
-- Barbara Johnson

Clearly, the violence would be immediate and constant – as is often the case with powerful movements. The birth rate would decrease – and it probably should. Men would be more hostile than their typical dented car rage. I think some women would be angry too. However, this band would be the most extreme action since Christ left – and most have forgotten His sacrifice - or don’t believe it ever happened. This call to "non action" would spark a refresher course in the religious dialogue – which is probably necessary too. In fact, this “boycott” may spark some real redemption.

Maybe.

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1 love,
Ray Lewis