Yesterday, we had a video here of Bette Midler in her return to Broadway in Hello, Dolly!  When she left the show, she was replaced by another major Broadway star, Bernadette Peters.  And here we have a terrific 10-minute video of Peters' first number, "I Put My Hand In" -- all the better since it's from the opening of the curtain and the entire sequence.

I have several dear friends from Sri Lanka, and was so glad to learn yesterday that none of their family or friends died in the Easter Day terrorist killings, half of which took place in churches. But they say that friends of theirs lost relatives -- one family lost three people.

The 253 deaths is heartbreaking -- even more so when we look at it not from the perspective of U.S. population but the 21 million who live there. It's the equivalent of 3,800 people in the U.S. dying in an attack. ​

This is the annual reprint of a column originally written on The Huffington Post in 2009.  And this year is the 16h anniversary of the actual event itself,  Some stories simply demand repeating.  Or better put, demand not being forgotten.  This is one of them.  And so, once again, here 'tis.
 
One additional word.  happily Maurice Cheeks is still in the NBA.  He's currently the assistant coach for the Oklahoma City Thunder, who made the playoffs this season (though alas were knocked out this week).  He also had a strong career as a solid player, and is 13th on the all-time list of assists with 7.392.  But though this doesn't count on that list, it may be his best assist of all...

​April 25, 2009

Oh, Say Can You Sing?  A National Anthem to Remember

As I prepared to write about an act of uncommon decency by a professional athlete, I realized that calling it that was unfair, that it diminishes what happened, because this was simply an act of uncommon decency, period.  That it happened on such a high level and under such a bright microscope might likely stir the heart more, but it's the act itself that is ultimately what stirs us to begin with.  Who it was and when it took place simply moves it up the pedestal.

Today is the sixth anniversary of Maurice Cheek's moment on the pedestal.

There is in the American consciousness for notable performances of the National Anthem at sporting events.  Jose Feliciano's evocative singing at the 1968 World Series in Detroit was the first to interpret the "Star Spangled Banner" before a national audience.  Because 1968 was one of the most tumultuous years in U.S. history, many at the time were so outraged that it took his career years to recover.  Today, the rendition not only seems tame, but one of the most tender and beautiful.  (And among the least known.  If you've never heard it, do yourself a favor and click here to listen.) 

Whitney Houston gets mentioned often for her rousing rendition at the 1991 Super Bowl, during the Gulf War.  For many, Marvin Gaye's deeply soulful performance at the 1983 NBA All Star is the most memorable.

But for sheer emotional joy, it's hard to top what happened on April 27, 2003, before Game 4 of the NBA playoffs between the Portland Trailblazers and Dallas Mavericks.

Context only adds to the story.  So, once again: 

This was the playoffs.  This is what all professional athletes live for, what their year is about.  The regular season is a prelude, an effort to get into the post-season and be in place to win the league championship, to become a part of your sport's history.  Everything centers on this.  As the start of each playoff game nears, as the roaring crowd is at its highest pitch, as players put on their proverbial "game faces" and the battle is moments from beginning, all external thoughts get filtered out, and focus is completely, solely on their task ahead.  

The National Anthem, for most athletes, must be one of those external influences.  More than most of us, who hear the "Star Spangled Banner" largely on special occasions, professional athletes have heard the National Anthem played before every single competitive game they've played.  Game after game repeatedly each season, and season after season, for decades.  Relentlessly.  As meaningful as the song is, it is also just part of the ritual for a professional athlete, focused on the game, geared up for the game, anxious to start the game.  Silent, not singing, maybe not even hearing the music.  Waiting for the National Anthem to be played, and finished, so that they can finally start what they're there for.  It's likely as much background noise as it is patriotic uplift.

And so it must have been as the Trailblazers and Mavericks prepared for their playoff game to start.  

Stepping out onto the court was Natalie Gilbert, a 13-year-old girl.   Just another National Anthem, just another youngster who won a contest, just another two minutes the crowd wanted to get past for the game they were there to see, to start.  And she started fine.  A little hesitant, since it's a frightening occasion for a child, with a national audience, flashing lights and a military guard.  But in her wavering voice, she was prepared.

Except that a few lines in, the high pageantry of the moment got her, and something went very wrong.  She totally, thoroughly forgot the words.  A young 13-year-old child, standing in front of over 10,000 people, lost.  Alone.

And that's when Maurice Cheeks showed the kind of person he was.

Maurice Cheeks had had a very good NBA career as a player.  He played for 15 years and was selected to four All Star games.  When he retired, he was the all-time leader in steals and fifth in assists.  He averaged over 11 points a game.  And then he later became a coach, the position he was currently in for the Portland Trailblazers.  It was Cheeks who was responsible for his team, responsible for keeping them focused on the game, responsible for guiding them.  But he saw a 13-year-old girl in trouble.

And that's when Maurice Cheeks showed the kind of person he was.  Immediately.

Cheeks always had a reputation in the NBA as a good guy.  But he was about to prove it on a national stage.  And what happened next - not just with Maurice Cheeks, but eventually with all the jaded players whose minds had been previously-focused on their game, an entire stadium of basketball fans there to see basketball, even the opposing white-haired coach Don Nelson - is just enthralling.

The moment is wonderful, but how it builds and surprises is even better.

And at the end, this tiny girl looking up at the giant of a man - who stayed around, refusing to leave her side and return to his team - with her face awash with relief, a huge hug, and the clear words mouthed, "Thank you," is all you need to see to why it's hard to top what happened on April 25, 2003, before Game 4 of the NBA playoffs for sheer emotional joy.  Six years ago today.

Last year, Bette Midler returned to Broadway to star in the revival of Hello, Dolly!, for which she won the Tony Award as Best Actress in Leading Role a Musical.  She didn't perform on the Tony broadcast, for reasons that were never made completely clear, but as best that people can figure it had to do with inflexible Tony rules,that went against a not totally-necessary request by the musical's producers. or something along those lines.  (Apparently the producers wanted to perform the show's opening number with most of the cast, but because the configuration of the Radio City Music Hall stage -- where the Tony's were being done -- they wanted to perform it live, but by remote from their home stage.  The Tony producers didn't want to establish this precdent.

Now, why this is such a terrible precedent (since the number would be done live), and the Tonys have done numbers from on the street outside the theater and from overseas, I'm not sure.  And why the Hello, Dolly! producers couldn't have chosen another number from the show with Bette Midler that could have been done on the Radio City stage, I'm not sure either.  But it wasn't, and instead audiences got co-star David Hyde Pierce alone singing a new song for the revival that was mediocre at best, "Penny in My Pocket."

Well, to rectify things a bit, here's a reasonably good video of Bette Midler and cast with a big production number from the show, "Before the Parade Passes By.”  Nice, too, is that the sequence includes Dolly's lead-in speech to her late-husband Ephraim Levi, and then after the number, a few minutes with David Hyde Pierce.  It's all quite good, though to my surprise I found myself liking the lead-in speech the most.

Yesterday morning, I flipped on the television, and to my surprise there was Jared Kushner on a stage being interviewed by reporter Brian Bennett of Time magazine.  This was someone who has gone out of his way to not be seen or heard -- and now he's doing a live Q&A.  I could only bear watching him for about four minutes, but it was long enough to make a few things very noticeable.

The first was that, after seeing the Mueller Report -- even redacted, but with those 14 blacked-out criminal referrals looming -- he must be terrified of getting indicted and of his father-in-law getting impeached and convicted.  Someone who has made it his mission to be hidden does not just pop up on live TV to be questioned for the fun of it.  You do that because you have something desperate to prove.

And then after that come the mind-numbing, head-exploding things he said.

What's gotten the most attention (understandably) is his comment that "I think the investigations and all the speculation that has happened for the last two years has had a much harsher impact on democracy than a couple Facebook ads."

First things first: if this is the argument that Jared Kushner, top adviser to Trump, then the White House is in more trouble than even they think.  Because I'm utterly certain that even the most religious Trump supporters knows the Russian investigation was about far, far, far, far more than "a couple Facebook ads."  They might think it's all a big nothing and a Deep State "Witch Hunt" (tm Trump), but even they know that that hunt wasn't trying to track down just "a couple Facebook ads."  And trying to claim it was not only makes Kushner and the administration he's a top adviser for look idiotic, but worse it makes it pretty clear they are trying to hide a great deal outside of those couple of Facebook ads."

There were probably hundreds of Facebook ads, tens of thousand of Twitter postings, hacking into the Democratic National Committee computers, hacking into the computers of the Democratic presidential candidate's team, efforts to set up fake organizations, projects that set up fake campaign events, meeting with Trump campaign officials -- including Jared Kushner, as well as the president's son and the Trump campaign manager, attempts by Kushner to set up secret backchannel communications with Russians, infiltrating the NRA, and much, much, much more.  Not just "a couple Facebook ads."  And nine Trump officials have had guilty verdicts and there have been 36 other indictments -- so far, all as a result of the Mueller investigation, which overwhelmingly transcends "a couple Facebook ads."  And as I said, even the most Kool-Aid besot Trumpian acolytes know that.  And when your top adviser tries to convince you that the Titanic is only about a bad plumbing gasket, then the administration is sending up semaphore code that they are guilty as sin.

And beyond the knowing idiocy of the comment to the American public, imagine the signal that this sends to Russia coming from the top adviser to Trump.  Basically the diplomatic equivalent of "Bring it on, boys, the door is wide open!"

But there was more than that from Kushner.

For instance, he was asked about his security clearance, and he brushed it off with some quick tap dancing that included the phrase about how "I've been vetted" a length and rambled on to some other gumfummery.  Except when listening to this, you grasp instantly that while, yes, he was indeed vetted, the massive problem is that the result of that vetting is that he was not approved for a high level security clearance.  And it was only because that was overruled that he got it.  Which is the whole point of the scandal.  A scandal, by the way, that is getting worse because Trump has told the official subpoenaed by the House to defy the subpoena.  It's like mobster John Gotti trying to declare his total innocence by noting that charges against him were looked into by a federal court and a jury of his peers -- and leaving out that he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

In addition, Kushner was asked about how one of his close friends is Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman who U.S. intelligence services say was responsible for the kidnapping, murder and torture of U.S. resident Jamal Kashoggi, and what did Kusher have to say about that.  His response was that "I'm not going to dispute American intelligence services," but that he wouldn't comment on intelligence matters, and then quickly went into a filibuster of word salad.  But here's the thing --

For starters, if you actually, truly are "not going to dispute American intelligence services," then you are accepting that bin Salman is guilty of kidnapping, torturing and murdering a U.S. resident, and there's no getting around that -- because that is what the American intelligence services found.  And no amount of tap dancing or obfuscation get get past that reality.  And beyond that...what on earth is this garbage about not commenting on intelligence matters???!!  This wasn't a top secret intelligence report with code-level clearance.  It was publicly released.  Their findings were reported in the newspapers.  There is absolutely NOTHING that stops Jared Kushner from commenting on the what the intelligence services found, other than you don't want to criticize the man who kidnapped, tortured and murdered a U.S. citizen, perhaps because he is able to help you out of your financial problems and because he can release a lot of information about you conspiring with him on any number of projects that could be reprehensible.  Maybe that's not it -- but there aren't many other good reasons for not condemning a man who (okay, let's say it all together) kidnapped, tortured and murdered a U.S. resident.

And keep in mind that all this is only from four minutes watching.  It was all I could take.  And the man there on stage spewing it all was the top adviser to Trump.  I don't have to imagine how bad the rest was.  Not only were those four minutes bad enough, truly horrible, bordering on ghastly -- but the mere fact that Jared Kushner was there at all, desperate to plead his empty case, was the most damning evidence of all.

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than speak and remove all doubt."
​-- Abraham Lincoln, Father of the Republican Party