I have always loved soccer. I first fell in love with it watching the great Pele play, and I decided that, since I wasn’t allowed to play football, soccer would be a great alternative. Compared to the last 40 years, kids who grew up when I did generally did not start organized sports until Junior High. Unless you played Little League or kid’s Football. We played disorganized sports in parks and backyards and school playgrounds. Soccer was still largely unknown in America in the 1970’s, but it was growing faster than in previous decades. It is estimated that there were hundreds of soccer programs emerging, so being in a school that had a well-developed system seemed pretty special. Title IX helped to create lots of girl’s programs as well, which led to America’s dominance in women’s soccer over the last couple of decades.
I was an amazingly adequate and mediocre soccer player; I got a decent amount of playing time in Junior High, but High School was a different story. You see, we had a very diverse population in Metropolitan New York City, and there was a group of Haitian immigrant families in our community whose kids had been playing since they could walk. The first-string guy in my position – center forward – was nicknamed “Magic” by the press, and he went on to be a pro. Watching him play was awe-inspiring; it also made it clear to me that I would rarely get on the field. After the 10th grade, I decided that I didn’t like warming the bench, so I went on to other activities. I did not begrudge Magic his skills, but having him there made it clear that I would never be good enough to start.
Maybe this is why so many people don’t like DEI; it creates another level of competition. Fragile white men, who were so used to getting jobs because – well – they just did, now had to compete with women and people of color who had exceptional skills and were worthy of consideration. If Magic, or people like him, were around today, his family might not have immigrated out of fear. Or, they would have stayed out of the spotlight, hoping that ICE would leave them alone. Then I could have been a starter! Maybe. I would at least have been the most okayest soccer player on my team. And that would have been great for me, but not so much for the team. America thrives on competition – we aspire to be the greatest because we attract the best and the brightest. At least, we used to. Consider this: Since the founding of the Nobel Prize in 1901, immigrants have been awarded 36 percent of the Nobel Prizes won by Americans in chemistry, medicine, and physics. Immigrants have won 40 percent of all U.S. Nobel Prizes in science since 2000, despite making up just 15 percent of the population. That should make us say Hmmm. We are at our greatest when we embrace diversity.
Prayer – Holy God, thank You for the many gifted people in the world who bring us forward. May that continue. Amen.
Today’s art is an example of art included with a Nobel Prize certificate.