Moving visit to African-American Museum

Sometimes sports isn’t the point.

I visited the new African-American Museum of History and Culture last week. It is stunning, magnificent, inspiring, moving and, well, I’ve run out of words.

Prior to last week, I visited three places in my life that touched me deeply. Arlington National Cemetery with the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns and the Kennedy grave site, the Vietnam War Memorial and the Holocaust Museum.

All were experiences that were profoundly moving.

The African-American Museum ranks with those.

I am convinced white America doesn’t get it. They need to come here. They need to see what was done to black people

and need to understand, if they can, what black people had to overcome and, indeed, still have to overcome.

Let me tell you what happened on my visit.

The building is by the Washington Monument, on the National Mall next to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Admission, like all Smithsonian Museums, is free.

I approached the Museum and there were hundreds of people sitting on benches outside of the building. A guard approached and asked if he could help.

I told him I planned to visit and he said I needed a ticket; a free ticket, but a ticket nonetheless. Worse, I could either get one online or show up at 6:30 next morning.

I said I didn’t know that. He asked if I was a veteran, I said no, just a retired teacher. He smiled and pointed to the lady staffing the entrance and to tell her I was a teacher. I did, she smiled, said welcome, and ushered me in.

I am forever grateful for her kindness.

The folks at the information desk, noting that at the moment the lines inside had shortened, urged me to take the elevator down and to work my way up.

That was the right way. As the elevator, which held maybe 75 people, descended, it grew progressively dark.

When the door opened, I found myself centuries past, with exhibits that described in graphic detail the horrors of the slave trade. The Middle Passage, which I taught in high school, became real.

The darkness added to the horror. The exhibit was jammed with folks — elderly, middle-aged, young people, mommies, daddies and kids. No one spoke. The Holocaust Museum is like that. Like that place, this was a holy experience.

As we moved along, almost in a quiet lockstep, we came to the exhibits on American slavery. Exhibits of slaves being sold, of families being torn apart, of black people being beaten, some to death.

The American Holocaust.

Then the Civil War. We like to think of Abraham Lincoln as a visionary, as one who hated slavery. That is taught in schools across the land. Except it’s not true. Lincoln, in his first inaugural address, said he was not opposed to slavery. History, war and politics changed that, but to say he was an abolitionist from the start is a myth.

The exhibit then details Reconstruction in which African-Americans held political office until 1877 when, in return for disputed electoral votes, President Rutherford B. Hayes withdrew Union troops from the South ending Reconstruction.

Almost instantly blacks were removed from office and the era of Jim Crow, with its ruthless segregation began.

The exhibit details the horror of that era, complete with lynchings, burnings and other terrors. The Ku Klux Klan — which still exists to this nation’s undying shame — acted at will as the white power structure not only did nothing, but encouraged.

The exhibit details all this and more.

I noticed, eventually, as we climbed the ramps from era to era, it became less dark. As we entered the Civil Rights Movement and saw videos of American heroes like Elizabeth Eckford, Ralph Abernathy, Rev. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Viola Liuzzo and countless women and men who risked their lives— and gave their lives — the museum space got more and more bright.

As we entered the 21st century, we reached ground level and the sunlight poured in.

No one is suggesting, least of all this museum, that the battle is over. There are millions of Americans out there who hate. We have elected and appointed officials who hold deep and abiding hatred for their fellow citizens. You know who they are. Upon reaching the first floor, escalators whisk the crowds up to the top several floors. Now there’s noise.

The sections on AfricanAmerican achievements in the arts — like last year’s great movies ‘Fences’ with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, or last year’s best movie ‘Moonlight’ of a gay man coming of age — are wonderful.

The sections on music, sports — there you are, sports fans — are very well done.

Those upper floors are a celebration. I thought about what folks have endured just to achieve simple equality. I know how hard others can make the lives of those considered to be not as good.

Our president did that to transgendered Americans. Politicians in 26 states still allow LGBTQ Americans to be fired from their jobs and Attorney General Jeff Sessions has the Justice (?) Dept. arguing in federal court that gay and lesbian folk were not intended to receive federal protection in federal employment.

So the battle goes on. As a gay American, I will always stand for full equality for all Americans. Even when it is as dark as the bottom floors of the museum, the arc of history bends upward towards the light of righteousness.

I just wish I had done a better job teaching the horrors and triumphs of black America.

As I told a lovely lady at the information desk upon my departure, I touched only the surface.

The Nationals

I took in two Nationals games against the Miami Marlins last week. The Nats won the first game 3-2. Giancarlo Stanton and Bryce Harper hit home runs, Max Scherzer pitched and The Nationals won with a run in the eighth.

The next night the Marlins won 7-3. Stanton hit one so far the outfielders never moved. Lord have mercy.

The Nats have a huge lead in the NL Least, but I’m not convinced. Maybe the fans aren’t either as only 21,000 showed up Monday — OK, it was a rainy day — but only 25,000 bothered Tuesday.

My ticket for Tuesday, which I bought at the gate, was front row, a few sections past third base. It cost $69. The exact same seat costs $400 at Yankee Stadium. Of course, the seat in da Bronx comes with food, but ya gotta eat a lot of dogs to make up $331.

Nationals Park is a great venue, but don’t drive as there’s no parking. Everybody takes the subway which takes you everywhere. I stayed in Arlington, a few hundred yards from the Iwo Jima Memorial with a Metro station nearby. Perfect.

DC driving is a nightmare. Upon leaving, I somehow ended up on restricted Pentagon land. I just kept going, through two gates, and somehow got out. They may be looking for me, so don’t tell anyone.

Marinan moves up

In what ought to be a surprise to no one, former Xavier football coach Sean Marinan has landed on his feet.

After being forced to resign last fall at Xavier after a wildly successful career in which he won five state titles — the only coach to win on-the-field state titles in that school’s history — Marinan is the defensive line coach at Southern Connecticut State University.

When you are good at what you do, people find you.

Regional follies

Paul LaFleur, the Bristol Legion GM and member of the state baseball commission, reported the Northeast Regional was a rain-slogged mess.

He called it a “disappointment” and said the tourney was forced to use three fields to catch up and that the main field, Fitton Field at Holy Cross, was “not a good playing field.”

He also said that there were player ejections and that a parent was ejected for the duration of the tournament. To make the drama complete, he said two moms from the same team got into a shouting match in a hotel lobby and he heard police were called. Lovely. Shrewsbury, Mass., the champion, beat Michigan 3-2 in 10 innings in the World Series, then lost on Saturday, 1-0, to Nevada. The series is pool play so two losses doesn’t necessarily mean a team is done.

Too complicated for me.

Here and there

The Little League World Series — commonly known as ESPN’s exploitation of 12 and 13 year olds — will inundate the airwaves for the next weeks.

Middletown High will remember former volleyball coach Bryan Hand ... he and wife Valerie live in Delaware, she is a professor at the University of Delaware and he works at the school as a math consultant with public schools all over the state ... I stayed with them one night on my travels, both are doing very well, and Bryan said he regarded his time at MHS and Middletown as the best time of his career.

Speaking of Middletown, coach Sal Morello reported he has eight starters back on defense and seven on offense ... Randall Bennett, the Cromwell/Portland football coach said he has eight starters back on defense.

Will take in the Tampa Bay Rays soon ... Clearwater Threshers, Class A minors, too ... fate of the Yankees will be determined over the next week.

Virginia Beach, my latest port of call, is lovely ... I am spending money like it’s water ... Feel free to send donations.