News Times Newspapers, Friday, September 9, 2016
15
OUT OF LEFT FIELd
Kareem: ambassador for democracy
W
hen I met with basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar a few years ago, he told me that if he had not become a professional athlete he would have become a history teacher. He has become a model for an encore career, in his case in the service of advancing democracy and our nation’s highest values as a public intellectual. At the time I chatted with Kareem at Hofstra, I told him that a friend of mine grew up in his Harlem neighborhood and remembered the young Lou Alcindor as an amazing Little League pitcher. Naturally, I asked Abdul-Jabbar whether he considered playing baseball as well as being a basketball superstar when he was at Power Memorial High School. He told me that the same man coached both baseball and basketball, and they considered both sports. Abdul-Jabbar indicated that he wondered how he might have fared (as in the endeavors of Danny Ainge and Michael Jordan) if he continued to play both sports. Just as well he did not, because as he traveled around the
nation playing basketball he became an avid reader, including a Sherlockian passion for Arthur Conan Doyle. That enthusiasm prompted him to publish his first novel, “Mycroft Holmes,” about Sherlock’s mythical “older” brother. The public scholar recognition has been increasing because of Abdul-Jabbar’s books about African-Americans in sports and American society. His role as a social commentator has expanded with columns in “Time” magazine and in newspapers. Last week in “The Washington Post,” he wrote about 49ers quarterback, Colin Kapernick who has been refusing to stand for the Star Spangled banner as a protest against social injustices in the U.S. Offering thoughtfully incisive comments on this highly publicized activity, Abdul-Jabbar placed Kapernick’s actions in the context of his provocative 2016 book, “Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White.” Clearly, Abdul-Jabbar shares the quintessential views of Dr.
MIchael d’Innocenzo Out of Left Field King and Norwegian scholar, Gunnar Myrdal; they both celebrated the nobility of American principles, and argued that Americans should use their special civil liberties to protest for a better democracy and for justice. I told Abdul-Jabbar that the deep influence of Myrdal’s “An American Dilemma” is highlighted in the Hofstra Archives with documents from the late Harry H. Wachtel (who had lived in Roslyn and Great Neck). Wachtel organized Dr. King’s 1964 Nobel Prize trip to Oslo, and with King’s urging, included a side trip to Stockholm for a spe-
cial visit with Myrdal. Abdul-Jabbar’s expanding public service for democracy and justice is a direct extension of the perspicacious endeavors of people like Myrdal, King and Long Islander, Wachtel. Jabbar emphasized that Kapernick was reflecting principles of Jefferson and Madison in the First Amendment – the freedom of speech, regardless of whether others liked it or not. He did say that Kapernick — and everyone — should consider the best venues for being heard and making desirable changes. Typical of Abdul-Jabbar’s modesty and openness to alternatives, he said he did not presume to tell Colin or anyone else how to choose their arenas of protest. But central to Jabbar’s fundamental commitments to democracy is his conviction that all speech and protests should foster dialogues. He noted: “Without dialogue it’s just people retreating to their own emotionally held position; you need to have the ability to hear the other side.” Our society is best served Abdul-Jabbar said when critics try to be a “bridge” between contend-
ing groups. He spoke specifically of one of Kapernick’s protests about police brutality. With his measured calm and respect for others, in his writing and expanding media interviews, Abdul-Jabbar said that his father and grandfather were police officers, and that “police are a major part of what democracy is about.” “We can’t do without police officers,” he emphasized, “but we can find better ways to police.” Abdul-Jabbar’s continuing service to democracy comes from his human rights respect and inclusion for all people, from his gentle welcoming of all to discourse, no matter how much they disagree, and in his urgent call for civility in conflict resolution. I wonder if Colin Kapernick has already been influenced by Abdul-Jabbar’s support and comments. A few days ago, Colin announced he would contribute $1 million for community projects and he is reaching out to meet with supporters and critics. He is on his way to serving as a “Bridge,” Kareem’s high ideal. Bravo, Colin! Continued on Page 18
A LOOk On THE LIgHTER SIdE
The importance of being frivolous
T
he recent passing of actor Gene Wilder reminded me that it was time to revisit my “10” movies list, seeing as how he appears in several of them. I decided to stage a miniGene-Wilder-Film-Festival, in the comfort of my own home. Or rather, I tried to. But apparently, half the world had the same thought, days before me — resulting in strategic gaps on the library shelves and in Amazon being completely “out” of “Blazing Saddles”! Actually sold out! This is how I ended up watching whatever DVDs were already in our possession… which in turn is how I came to be captivated by “Young Frankenstein,” a film I had seen before, but not put on my original list. “Young Frankenstein” was apparently Wilder’s idea. He wrote the story and screenplay with Mel Brooks, who directed the film. As I watched, I realized that scene after scene contained classic “bits” that had already taken up
residence in my mind. Who could hear the words, “Walk this way” ever again, without seeing Marty Feldman’s hunchbacked character, the servant Igor, shuffling down the platform at Transylvania Station? For that matter, who could hear one of my relatives insisting that “It’s Ep-STINE, not Ep-steen,” without remembering the priceless scene of Wilder’s character insisting “It’s Fron-ken-shteen!” A few lines later, Feldman’s character gets his own back: “It’s pronounced Eye-gor,” he insists to his new boss. In interviews, Wilder explained his high-tech method. One day, “I took a yellow legal pad and a blue felt pen, went upstairs for half an hour, and at the top wrote ‘Young Frankenstein.’ ” In 2005, NPR’s Terry Gross asked him, “What gave you the idea? Did you love the Frankenstein movie?” Wilder replied, “At the time I didn’t know why. But I know now that when I was a little boy, I was scared to death of the “Franken-
JUdY epSTeIn
A Look on the Lighter Side stein” film — films, actually, because there were four of them in particular that influenced me. And in all these years later, I wanted it to come out with a happy ending.” Considering how powerful the Frankenstein story has proven, it is all the more amazing that it was not handed down from the mists of time, but was invented whole as the Gothic novel “Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus,” by British writer Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, in 1818.
The undoubted high point of Wilder’s version comes in the scene where Wilder and his “monster,” played by Peter Boyle, do “Puttin’ On The Ritz” in top hats and tails. It brought me, helpless, to my knees. But it almost didn’t happen! As Wilder told Terry Gross, “I was writing every day, and then Mel would come to the house and read what I’d written.… And we’d talk a little bit and then he’d go away, and I would write all the next day.… And then one day, when he read the pages I had written about Dr. Frankenstein and the creature sing and dance to “Puttin’ On The Ritz,” he said, “Are you crazy? This is frivolous. You’re just being frivolous.” Listening to this, I was amazed. Mel Brooks, creator of countless zany and unbelievable moments in television and film — the inventor of a singing and dancing Hitler! — thought something should be out because it was “frivolous”?
But Wilder fought for his idea: “After 20 minutes or so of arguing, I …started screaming and then all of a sudden, he said, OK, it’s in. And I said, well, why did you put me through this? And he said, I wasn’t sure if it was right. I thought if you didn’t argue for it, then it was wrong. And if you did, it was right. So you convinced me.” This interview moment touched a chord, for me. Back when I was writing 30and 60-second promos for A World of Ideas with Bill Moyers, I tried to draft the most serious and highminded material I could. And yet, more than once, Bill would pass over my serious offerings for something odd or wacky that I had left in the margins. If it can happen to Gene Wilder, it can happen to anybody. And it’s a valuable reminder not to let anyone — not Mel Brooks, not even your own cautious self — censor your creations. It can be precisely the bit you doubt the most, that others will relate to the best.