Color-blind Love in the midst of a racially conscious society. According to David Crary in an AP feature article on 13 April 2007 interracial marriages are surging across U.S..The charisma king of the 2008 presidential field, Barack Obama; and, the world's best golfer, Tiger Woods;, and, the captain of the New York Yankees baseball team, Derek Jeter, all have something in common besides being superstars. Each is the child of an interracial marriage.

For most of U.S. history, in most communities, such unions were taboo.It was only 40 years ago on June 12, 1967 that the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down a Virginia statute barring whites from marrying nonwhites. The decision also overturned similar bans in 15 other states.

Since that landmark Loving v. Virginia ruling, the number of interracial marriages has soared; for example, black-white marriages increased from 65,000 in 1970 to 422,000 in 2005, according to Census Bureau figures.
Factoring in all racial combinations, Stanford University sociologist Michael Rosenfeld calculates that more than 7 percent of America's 59 million married couples in 2005 were interracial, compared to less than 2 percent in 1970.

Coupled with a steady flow of immigrants from all parts of the world, the surge of interracial marriages and multiracial children is producing a 21st century America more diverse than ever, with the potential to become less stratified by race.

"The racial divide in the U.S. is a fundamental divide, but when you have the 'other' in your own family, it's hard to think of them as 'other'
anymore," Rosenfeld said. "We see a blurring of the old lines, and that has to be a good thing, because the lines were artificial in the first place."

The boundaries were still distinct in 1967, a year when the Sidney Poitier film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" , a comedy built around parents'
acceptance of an interracial couple, was considered groundbreaking.
The Supreme Court ruled that Virginia could not criminalize the marriage that Richard Loving, a white, and his black wife, Mildred, entered into nine years earlier in Washington, D.C.

What once seemed so radical to many Americans is now commonplace. Many prominent blacks including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, civil rights leader Julian Bond and former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun have married whites. Well-known whites who have married blacks include former Defense Secretary William Cohen and actor Robert DeNiro.

Last year, the Salvation Army installed Israel Gaither as the first black leader of its U.S. operations. He and his wife, Eva, who is white, wed in 1967. It was the first interracial marriage between Salvation Army officers in the United States.

Opinion polls show overwhelming popular support, especially among younger people, for interracial marriage.

That's not to say acceptance has been universal. Interviews with interracial couples from around the country reveal varied challenges, and opposition has lingered in some quarters.

Bob Jones University in South Carolina only dropped its ban on interracial dating in 2000; a year later 40 percent of the voters objected when Alabama became the last state to remove a no-longer-enforceable ban on interracial marriages from its constitution.

Taunts and threats, including cross burnings, still occur sporadically. In Cleveland, two white men were sentenced to prison earlier this year for harassment of an interracial couple that included spreading liquid mercury around their house.

More often, though, the difficulties are more nuanced, such as those faced by Kim and Al Stamps during 13 years as an interracial couple in Jackson, Miss.

Kim, a white woman raised on Cape Cod, met Al, who is black, in 1993 after she came to Jackson's Tougaloo College to study history. Together, they run Cool Al's, a popular hamburger restaurant while raising a 12-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter in the state with the nation's lowest percentage (0.7) of multiracial residents.

The children are homeschooled, Kim said, because Jackson's schools are largely divided along racial lines and might not be comfortable for biracial children. She said their family triggered a wave of "white flight" when they moved into a mostly white neighborhood four years ago. "People were saying to my kids, 'What are you doing here?'"

"Making friends here has been really, really tough," Kim said. "I'll go five years at a time with no white friends at all."

Yet some of the worst friction has been with her black in-laws. Kim said they accused her of scheming to take over the family business, and there's been virtually no contact for more than a year.

"Everything was race," Kim said. "I was called 'the white devil.'"

Her own parents in Massachusetts have been supportive, Kim said, but she credited her mother with foresight.

"She told me, 'Your life is going to be harder because of this road you've chosen — it's going to be harder for your kids,'" Kim said. "She was absolutely right."

Al Stamps said he is less sensitive to disapproval than his wife, and tries to be philosophical.

"I'm always cordial," he said. "I'll wait to see how people react to us.
If I'm not wanted, I'll move on."

It's been easier, if not always smooth, for other couples.

Major Cox, a black Alabamian, and his white wife, Cincinnati-born Margaret Meier, have lived on the Cox family homestead in Smut Eye, Ala., for more than 20 years, building a large circle of black and white friends while encountering relatively few hassles.

"I don't feel it, I don't see it," said Cox, 66, when asked about racist hostility. "I live a wonderful life as a nonracial person."

Meier says she occasionally detects some expressions of disapproval of their marriage, "but flagrant, in-your-face racism is pretty rare now."


Cox, an Army veteran and former private detective who now joins his wife in raising quarter horses, longs for a day when racial lines in America break down.

"We are sitting on a powder keg of racism that's institutionalized in our attitudes, our churches and our culture," he said, "that's going to destroy us if we don't undo it."

In many cases, interracial families embody a mix of nationalities as well as races. Michelle Cadeau, born in Sweden, and her husband, James, born in Haiti, are raising their two sons as Americans in racially diverse West Orange, N.J., while teaching them about all three cultures.

"I think the children of families like ours will be able to make a difference in the world, and do things we weren't able to do," Michelle Cadeau said. "It's really important to put all their cultures together, to be aware of their roots, so they grow up not just as Swedish or Haitian or American, but as global citizens."

Meanwhile, though, there are frustrations, such as school forms for 5-year-old Justin that provide no option for him to be identified as multiracial.

"I'm aware there are going to be challenges," Michelle said. "There's stuff that's been working for a very long time in this country that is not going to work anymore."

The boom in interracial marriages forced the federal government to change its procedures for the 2000 census, allowing Americans for the first time to identify themselves by more than one racial category.

About 6.8 million described themselves as multiracial; 2.4 percent of the population; adding statistical fuel to the ongoing debate over what race really means.

Kerry Ann Rockquemore, professor of African-American studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago, is the daughter of a black father and white mother, and says she is asked almost daily how she identifies herself.

The surge in interracial marriage comes at "a very awkward moment" in America's long struggle with racism, she says.

"We all want deeply and sincerely to be beyond race, to live in a world where race doesn't matter, but we continue to see deep racial disparities," Rockquemore said. "For interracial families, the great challenge is when the kids are going to leave home and face a world that is still very racialized."

The stresses on interracial couples can take a toll. The National Center for Health Statistics says their chances of a breakup within 10 years are
41 percent, compared to 31 percent for a couple of the same race.

In some categories of interracial marriage, there are distinct gender-related trends. More than twice as many black men marry white women as vice versa, and about three-fourths of white-Asian marriages involve white men and Asian women.

C.N. Le, a Vietnamese-American who teaches sociology at the University of Massachusetts, says the pattern has created some friction in Asian-American communities.

"Some of the men view the women marrying whites as sellouts, and a lot of Asian women say, 'Well, we would want to date you more, but a lot of you are sexist or patriarchal,'" said Le, who attributes the friction in part to gender stereotypes of Asians that have been perpetuated by American films and TV shows.

Kelley Kenney, a professor at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, is among those who have bucked the black-white gender trend. A black woman, she has been married since 1988 to a fellow academic of Irish-Italian descent, and they have jointly offered programs for the American Counseling Association about interracial couples.

Kenney recalled some tense moments in 1993 when, soon after they moved to Kutztown, a harasser shattered their car window and placed chocolate milk cartons on their lawn. "It was very powerful to see how the community rallied around us," she said.

Kenney is well aware that some blacks view interracial marriage as a potential threat to black identity, and she knows her two daughters, now
15 and 11, will face questions on how they identify themselves.

"For older folks in the black community," she said "it's a feeling of not wanting people to forget where they came from."

Yet some black intellectuals embrace the surge in interracial marriages and multiracial families; among them is Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy, who addressed the topic in his latest book, "Interracial
Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption."

"Malignant racial biases can and do reside in interracial liaisons,"
Kennedy wrote. "But against the tragic backdrop of American history, the flowering of multiracial intimacy is a profoundly moving and encouraging development."

Say It Loud I'm Black And I'm Proud It is a good thing that James Brown did live to see his “wanna-be” promoter, Al Sharpton, turn out to be the antithesis of everything that The God Father of Soul stood for. “Say it loud, I am Black and I am proud” was the rallying cry of Black Americans in the 1960’s and 1970’s. African Americans were proud of their dark complexions, broad noses, and nappy hair. Americans chose hair as their symbol of protest in the 60’s. No one embodied the spirit of that generation better than Black Americans sporting long bushy Afros. Long nappy Afros were the “in” hair fashion. Afro hairstyles symbolized a generation of American youth protesters. Caucasians and Asians were going to the beauty salons to get kinked.
Today Rev Al Sharpton is trying to “ethnically cleanse” the English language, at least, that version that is common in the Black community. Rev Sharpton and Rev Jesse Jackson are leading the charge that Don Imus should be fired. They have a direct line to the media to express their outrage. These two, so called, gospel ministers have forgotten the most basic tenet of the teachings of Jesus. When rabbis wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery, Jesus said "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone". Rev Jackson and Rev Sharpton do not have clean hands. Their hands are dripping with the blood of Tawana Brawley, and their lips are dripping with slurs like Hymietown and Jew York as references to New York City.They should not have led the media lynch mob for Imus' head on a silver platter. They served Imus up like John The Baptist.

Harry R. Jackson Jr., founder and Chairman of the High Impact Leadership Coalition said on 17 April in a column, "Rev.Jesse Jackson has never been elected the Black community’s president or crowned King of Black America. Here we go again, elevating a personal political agenda above the needs of our community." He was once offered the position of Mayor of Washington, DC. He could have run virtually unopposed. He refused, presumably because it did not come with a personal airplane and a million dollar personal budget.

Almost all of the Black people I know have nappy hair. It is nappy in its natural state. Perhaps, that is why Rev Al wears a “process”. He straightens his hair, either chemically or with the revolutionary invention of Madam C. J. Walker, the straightening comb. He does not wear it naturally nappy. I do not know if he is ashamed of his God given attributes, or if he wants to truly imitate his idol, James Brown. James Brown wore a “process” all of his adult life.



Words like nappy, and kinky are common in the Black community. They are not good or bad. They are just descriptive. Young Black children are taught that nappy hair is “bad hair” and that curly or straight hair is “good hair”. These are some of the psychological chains that replaced the physical chains of slavery. Many Blacks are still slaves to the English language. They want to regulate how others use the English language. Some words are bad and others are good. Some words can only be used by Blacks about Blacks. It appears that “nappy” and “ho” are two such words.
Those words were once the exclusive province of the Black community, but then Hip Hop Rap meisters took the vernacular worldwide. They sold out their birth right. For a fist full of dollar and fifteen minutes of fame they recorded the most disgusting lyrics they could dream up depicting the most sordid areas of their urban cultural experience. They used words seldom heard outside the Black community. People worlwide began speaking in the same new dialect. To rappers most women were characterized as “hos”. Today many people are speaking their language. Now the chickens are coming home to roost. Many of those screaming for Imus' head have used those same words all of their lives. They are a part of the Black Cultural experience. Down deep in the Black psyche there are some things that we do not like about ourselves. And that is a shame. Nothing God made was ugly or bad, except that weak minded humans perceive it as such.

The first person has weighed into this fracas with clear headed comments was Michael Harrison, the editor of the Talk Radio magazine Talkers. "The real issue" he said "is the the larger battle over the kind of course language popularized by the Hip Hop and Rap culture". They have added new words to our lexicon.
Apparently Don Imus heard one of their records; or, perhaps he has friends of the Black persuasion who speak openly in his presence. Or, maybe after hearing all those rap lyrics, he has learned to talk "Black", at least, Ghetto Black. Nevertheless, he has picked up the vernacular. He has a far reaching pulpit to shout it from. He is a 66 year old very popular shock jock. He is a member of the radio Hall of Fame. Advertisers spent about $12 Million on his ahow in 2006. Sponsors paid MSNBC an additional $8.4 Million for spots on his show in the same year. His generates more money than the Gross National product of most of the countries in Africa, Asia, South, Central and Latin America. When Howard Stern jumped to satellite radio, Imus did not. His bosses in the medium appreciate his loyalty. They are not about to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. "I am not going to drop him", said Greater Music CEO Peter Smyth who aires Imus on WTKK in Boston, Massachuetts.
Imus said something that the “politically correct” sheriff’s of the English language did not approve of. He is momentarily in the hot seat again. It would be tempting to join in the charade and “pile on”, since every one is doing it. But, I think we are just being too sensitive. Afterall, an apology from Don Imus will not straighten one hair on Rev Al Sharpton’s head or on a single of the basketball players from Rutgers. It will give Rev Al and Rev Jesse another chance to strut and fret their time upon the stage. They will force another fellow entertainer to grovel and apologize, along the lines of Michael Richards, who was finally pardoned by Rev Sharpton and told that he was a "good man". A few token advertisers, like Procter and Gamble or Staples, will withdraw their ads for a while. It is more about entertainment than any outraged indignation. The line between news and entertainment is so blurred that no one can really tell the difference anymore. Even fewer people seem to care. They just want a daily slice of agitation and entertainment to spice up their routine dull existence. And that is precisely what Imus gives them. He is a provokateur. He is a shock-jock. And he is good at what he does. He loves to pull the strings and push the buttons of sensitive people. He has a power and a lever of control over weak minded people who can be relied upon to react as expected. All the while he is having fun and appears to be contrite with a smug little smirk.



It appears that he referred to the Rutgers basketball players as “nappy-headed hos”. I did not hear the radio broadcast. I have read in the media how many are calling for his ouster. It appears that a simple apology is not sufficient. One thing I have not been able to get clear from the press reports. That is what part of the statement his critics find offensive, or most offensive. Is it the “nappy-headed” part; or, is it the “hos” part? Neither was a nice thing to say on the radio; but, which is he supposed to apologize for?

If you are a Black Hip-Hop “artist” or a “Gangsta” rapper, you are allowed by the liberal media, the elements of corporate America getting rich off of you, and many in your community, to disgustingly denigrate young Black women by word and image. But, if you are a white, senior citizen, national radio host and repeat a repugnant phrase sung hundreds of times by young African-Americans, then you are systematically targeted and ostracized by a complacent media eager to appease self-appointed leaders such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
What standard are we using to judge Imus? There is no clearly defined community standard anymore. By the Hip Hop Rapper Standard, Imus would get The Image Award. He is an "artist", and he must be free to express himself. That is part of the price we all must pay to live in a free society. It is part of our First Amendment Freedoms. According to Cal Thomas, if Imus went on trial no jury would convict him because the prosecutor would not have a universal standard by which to hold him accountable.
If TRUTH is a complete defense, then the “nappy-head” part would not be legally actionable. It is not nice or polite, but it is hardly fighting words. To tell a person he has a big nose, or straight hair, when he does, is merely stating the obvious. It is the truth.
Today, anything less than flattering is an insult. The “hos” part is offensive and would be actionable as a common law tort, imputing less than chaste character to a woman of good character. He should be held to a higher standard because of the powerful position that he has in the entertainment business. He should realize that he cannot talk like people on the street. But, this is a temptest in a tea pot.
I still cannot figure out why Jimmy "The Greek" Schneider was fired from the Sunday football broadcasts. All he said was that during the slave era in America slaves were bred for speed and power in the hips. Everyone knows or suspects that that it true. Perhaps it reminds us of a shameful period in our history. We would rather not be reminded of shameful things in our past.
Now, when Tom Brookshire was broadcasting an NCAA basketball game he went too far. A team with a low score of about 65 was maligned by Tom Brookshire. He said that the score represented the IQ of the entire team. That was funny, but it was also insulting and cruel. There was probably no truth in it.
The first part of what Imus said was true. Black women have nappy hair. Madame C. J. Walker became the first female millionaire in America when she invented a way for women to straighten their hair. She invented the straightening comb. It is used by Black and white women.
Today well-meaning people employ euphemisms in order to be kind. Unfortunately, we do our reasoning with words and, so, when what we wish to communicate isn’t clear-thinking but merely our own compassion and empathy, we wind up sounding like a bunch of politically correct nincompoops. We have turned into a nation of intellectual creampuffs. Negroes became Blacks and then African Americans. Homosexuals became gays. Janitors became garbage collectors. Retarded people became exceptional or mentally challenged. Illegal aliens became undocumented immigrants. Absent minded are just experiencing a senior moment. Nappy-headed people are just having a bad hair day.
English is becoming a hard language to express yourself in without being sued or punched in the mouth. In the case of Don Imus, he might get suspended or lose his job because of a loose tongue. But I doubt it. He is everybody's favorite Bad Boy. He pushes the envelope of civil dialogue. Senators John McCain, John Kerry and Joe Lieberman have accepted his apology, so has former Governor and Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. As a minister of the Gosppel, Huckaby believes in confession and redemption. Other media stars who have appeared on Imus' show, like Face the Nation host Tim Russert and News Anchorman Brian Williams have not indicated that they will not accept future invitations to appear on the Imus Show. Don Imus says things out in the open that others are thinking in the privacy of their own minds. He rattles and gives away his position and his intentions. He is like a rattle snake. I prefer a rattle snake to a cobra.
Apparently, we as a nation, are looking for some time out. We need a diversion from the constant news of wars and suicide bombings. This is a healthy diversion. Every one is getting in on the act.
President George Bush, Citizen Number 1, speaking through his spokes person, Dana Perino, said "An apology was the absolute right thing to do. Beyond that I think that his employer is going to have to make a decision about any action that they take based on it."
All of the presidential contenders said pretty much the same things. Hillary Clinton called the remarks hateful and hurtful. Mitt Romney said if he ever goes back on the show he will tell Imus how awful those remarks were. Rudy Giuliani said Imus realizes that he made a very, very big mistake. Senator Chris Dodd said Imus' remarks were wrong and unacceptable.
The person I most wanted to hear from was Barak Obama. He is the only candidate with close to nappy hair. So far, he has said nothing. I wonder if he is ashamed of his "naps". That's what all this is about, self-hate. Anyone proud of their God-given nappy hair would not be offended if some one said that they had nappy hair.
As Don King would say "Only in America". Isn't this a great country or what? We have freedom of speech and of the press. By playing for the NCAA Championship against the Volunteers of Tennessee, did that make the Rutgers team public figures, and open them up for public lampooning? In one of the middle eastern countries, the soccer team and the coach were killed. They were burned to death for loosing. One of the World Cup coaches from South America could not return home after losing. Sadam Hussein's son took person revenge on his soccer coach and the entire team for loosing a game. All Imus did was make fair comment and use a popular invective popularized by most of the current popular music rappers.
There is a chilling effect on public discourse today. Every joke is made at some one's expense. It may be the Polish, or the Dumb Blond, or the Irish, or the Jews, or
a certain religious faith, or a politician; but, someone does not find it so funny. At least, in America we have that right and privilege. In Amsterdam, Netherlands they killed Vincent Van Gogh's relative for printing a carton about the Prophet. So, thank God for the Supreme Court and the United States of America. The Supreme Court under Chief Judge William Rehnquist in 1988 in the Case of Hustler Magazine v. Jerry Falwell said that even the most caustic commentary about public figures deserves First Amendment protection. "Isn't this a great country, or what"?

America's Axis of Idiots give aide and confort to the President's Axis of Evil.

J.D. Pendry is a retired Army Command Sergeant Major who writes for Random House.

HE IS QUITE ELOQUENT, and he seldom beats around the bush!!! (no pun intended)

Jimmy Carter, you're the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage.

You're the runner-in-chief.

Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia , and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the U.S.S. Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our Embassy Bombings emboldened the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately they grew bolder, until 9/11.

John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam . Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You've accused our Soldiers of terrorizing women and children in Iraq. You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, the same words you used to describe Vietnam. You're a fake. You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did the Vietnamese. Iraq, like Vietnam is another war that you were for, before you were Against it

John Murtha, you said our military was broken. You said we can't win militarily in Iraq. You accused United States Marines of cold-blooded Murder without proof. And said we should redeploy to Okinawa. Okinawa John? And the Democrats call you their military expert. Are you sure you didn't suffer a traumatic brain injury while you were off building your war hero resume? You're a sad, pitiable, corrupt and washed up politician.

You're not a Marine, sir. You wouldn't amount to a good pimple on a real Marine's butt. You're a phony and a disgrace.

Run away John.

Dick Durbin, you accused our Soldiers at Guantanamo of being Nazis, Tenders of Soviet style gulags and as bad as the regime of Pol Pot, who murdered two million of his own people after your party abandoned South East Asia to the Communists. Now you want to abandon the Iraqis to the same fate. History was not a good teacher for you, was it? Lord help us!!

See Dick run.

Ted Kennedy, for days on end you held poster-sized pictures from Abu Grhaib in front of any available television camera. Al Jazeera quoted you Saying hat Iraqi's torture chambers were open under new management. Did you see the news this week, Teddy? The Islamic Nazis demonstrate real torture for you again. If you truly supported our troops, you'd show the world poster sized pictures of that atrocity and demand the annihilation of it. Your legislation stripping support from the South Vietnamese led to a communist victory there.

You're a bloated drunken fool bent on repeating the same historical blunder that turned freedom-seeking people over to homicidal, genocidal maniacs. To paraphrase John Murtha, all while sitting on your wide, gin-soaked rear-end in Washington

Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Carl Levine, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Russ Feingold, Hillary Clinton, Pat Leahy, Chuck Schumer, et al ad nauseam. Every time you stand in front of television cameras and broadcast to the Islamic Nazis that we went to war because our President lied, that the war is wrong and our Soldiers are torturers, that we should leave Iraq, you give the Islamic butchers - the same ones that tortured and mutilated American soldiers - cause to think that we'll run away again, and all they have to do is hang on a little longer.

American news media, the New York Times particularly: Each time you publish stories about national defense secrets and our intelligence gathering methods, you become one united, with the sub-human pieces of camel dung that torture and mutilate the bodies of American Soldiers.

You can't strike up the courage to publish cartoons, but you can help Al Qaeda destroy my country. Actually, you are more dangerous to us than Al Qaeda is. Think about that each time you face Mecca to admire Your Pulitzer.

You are America 's "AXIS OF IDIOTS". Your Collective Stupidity will Destroy us. Self-serving politics and terrorist abetting news scoops are more important to you than our national security or the lives of innocent civilians and Soldiers. It bothers you that defending ourselves gets in the way of your elitist sport of politics and your ignorant editorializing.

There is as much blood on your hands as is on the hands of murdering terrorists. Don't ever doubt that. Your frolics will only serve to extend this war as they extended Vietnam. If you want our Soldiers home, as you claim, knock off the crap and try supporting your country ahead of supporting your silly political aims and aiding our enemies.

Yes, I'm questioning your patriotism. Your loyalty ends with self. I'm also, questioning why you're stealing air that decent Americans could be breathing. You don't deserve the protection Of our men and women in uniform. You need to run away from this war, this country. Leave the war to the people who have the will to see it through and the country to people who are willing to defend it.

No, Mr. President, you don't get off the hook, either. Our country has Two enemies: Those who want to destroy us from the outside and those who Attempt it from within. Your Soldiers are dealing with the outside force. It's Your obligation to support them by confronting the AXIS OF IDIOTS. America must hear it from you that these Self-centered people are harming our country, abetting the enemy and endangering our safety.

Well up a little anger, please, and channel it toward the appropriate target. You must prosecute those who leak national security secrets to the media. You must prosecute those in the media who knowingly publish those secrets. Our soldiers need you to confront the enemy that they cannot. They need you to do it now.

AMEN!

Copyright J.D. Pendry 2006, Ret Sgt. Major US Army
Subject: Axis of Idiots

Coach Eddie Robinson, Grambling football coach, made civil rights part of his game plan.
To his very last day, April 3rd, 2007, Eddie Robinson was always battling something.
There was the institutional racism that surrounded him, the piddling football budget he and his coaching staff subsisted on at predominantly black Grambling State and, ultimately, the Alzheimer's disease that took his life at age 88.
And so ended the life of a beloved football coach who put a small school in remote northern Louisiana on the map and turned it into a virtual farm team for the NFL during a career that spanned 57 years.

He was born Edward Gay Robinson, the son of a sharecropper and a domestic maid, on February 13, 1919 in Jackson, Louisiana. He graduated with a BS in English from Leland College in Baker, La. He earned an MS degree in Physical Education from the U. of Iowa.
After college he could not find a job as a coach. He began working in a feed mill in Baton Rouge, Louisiana by day, and at night he worked on an ice wagon.
He married Doris Mott in 1941. They were married for 65 years. He aunt worked at Grambling. At that time it was known as Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute. It consisted of 5 buildings in the middle of a peach orchard and pig farms. There was an opening at the school for a football coach. Robinson took the job. He salary was $63.75 per month. That was a pay raise from the feed mill and the ice wagon.
In 1945 the father of his star players was a large cotton sharecropper. He pulled all of his sons out of school to pick cotton. Robinson took his entire team over to the farm and picked all of the cotton for the sharecropper. With his star players bach, he went on to win the championship.
Robinson was a champion of "equal rights" who tried to effect change by working within the established boundaries and avoiding confrontation. He rallied against prejudice but refused to allow racism to keep him from his destiny.
"You know, I've lived a long time, and I've seen a lot," he once said. "I have ridden on the back of the bus, and I have drunk from segregated water fountains; but, I am not trying to make any body pay. All I wanted was an opportunity to prove that I can do what other people can do. I got that at Grambling."
Robinson built a football powerhouse with a worldwide reputation, all the while struggling to get past years of segregation and discrimination against blacks.
His success at Grambling no doubt made him the first easily recognizable black coach in any sport.
"Today we mourn the loss of a great Louisianan and a true American hero," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. "Coach Eddie Robinson became the most successful college coach of all time and one of the greatest civil rights pioneers in our history. ... Coach Robinson elevated a small town program to national prominence and tore down barriers to achieve an equal playing field for athletes of all races."
Robinson won 408 games, the most ever for any coach at the time of his retirement in 1997. He sent hundreds of players to the NFL and other leagues, and the majority of them were clutching college degrees when they left.
Playing at Grambling became a goal of young black men as Robinson's fame grew.
"Everybody wanted to play at Grambling," Jackson State coach Rick Comegy said. "He'd done such a fantastic job. He was on national TV, you know, and that was the first time I'd ever seen a black college football team on TV growing up."
Robinson's career spanned 11 presidents, several wars and the civil rights movement. Though his teams struggled during his final years, his overall record of excellence is what will be remembered: 408-165-15.
Until John Gagliardi of St. John's, Minn., topped the victory mark four years ago, Robinson was the winningest coach in all of college football.
Jerry Izenberg, the sports columnist emeritus at the Star-Ledger of Newark and a close friend of Robinson since 1963, said the coach was an inspiration in the deep South.
"People look at black pride in America and sports' impact on it," Izenberg said. "In the major cities it took off the first time Jackie Robinson stole home. In the deep South, it started with Eddie Robinson, who took a small college in northern Louisiana with little or no funds and sent the first black to the pros and made everyone look at him and Grambling."
Running back Paul "Tank" Younger signed with the Los Angeles Rams and became the first player from an all-black college to enter the NFL. Suddenly, pro scouts learned how to find the little school 65 miles east of Shreveport near the Arkansas border.
Robinson sent over 200 players to the NFL, including seven first-round draft choices and Williams, who succeeded Robinson as Grambling's coach in 1998. Others went to the Canadian Football League and the now-defunct USFL.
Robinson's pro stars included Willie Davis, James Harris, Ernie Ladd, Buck Buchanan, Sammy White, Cliff McNeil, Willie Brown, Roosevelt Taylor, Charlie Joiner and Willie Williams.
The same year Robinson took his team on the road, 1968, Howard Cosell and Izenberg produced the documentary, "Grambling College: 100 Yards to Glory;" Robinson became vice president of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics; and all three major television networks carried special programming on Grambling football.
A year later, Grambling played before 277,209 paying customers in 11 games, despite a home field that seated just 13,000.
The National Football Foundation honored Robinson in 1992 with its Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award. When he retired, the organization inducted him into the College Football Hall of Fame. Also in 1997, foundation board member and New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner endowed one of the foundation's national scholar-athlete awards in Robinson's name with a $300,000 gift.

Robinson was Grambling's coach for 56 years, from 1942 to 1997. He became the first college coach to rack up 400 wins, completing his career with 408 wins, 165 losses and 15 ties. His teams had just eight losing seasons and won 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference titles and nine national black college championships.
Robinson sent more than 200 players to the N-F-L.
His survivors include Doris, his only wife of 65 years, and his son Eddie Robinson, Jr.; a daughter, Lillian Berry, and 5 grandchildren, and 9 great-grandchildren.
His funeral is scheduled for Wednesday, 11 April 2007 at the Grambling Assembly Center next to Robinson Stadium.
Instead of flowers, donations may be sent to The Friends of the Eddie G. Robinson Museum, P.O. Box 550, Grambling, LA. 71245. Details at www.robinsonmuseum.com

LIFE IS A BASEBALL GAME.
"Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball" the French Historian Jacques Barzun made this famous diagnosis of American life in 1954.

On 15 April 1947 , Jackie Robinson became the first African American player in Major League Baseball. Today San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds is moving closer to baseball's all-time home run record, soon to surpass Hammering Hank Aaron and Herman "The Babe" Ruth..

A Black Gospel Singer, Sister Wynonna Carr, put it this way:

You know life is a baseball game, and you must play it fair.
It's being played every day, and every one can play.
Jesus is standing at home plate; He's waiting for you there.
Life is a baseball game, and you must play it fair.
First Base is temptation, and Second Base is sin.
Third Base is tribulation, if you pass you can make it in.
Old Man Solomon is the empire. Satan is pitching the game.
He'll do his best to psych you out, keep playing anyway.
Daniel is up to bat first. He prayed three times a day.
Satan pitched him a fast ball, bur he hit it anyway.
Job, is up to bat next. Satan struck him in every way.
But, Job hit a homerun, and he came on in that day.
Prayer is our strong bat. When he hears that Satan will fall.
When you start to swinging, you've got to give it your all and all.
Faith is gonna be your catcher, and on him you can depend.
Lord Jesus is standing at Home plate, and waiting for you to come in.
Moses is on the sidelines, waiting to be called.
When he parted the Red Sea, he gave Jesus his all in all.
John came in in the ninth inning. The game was almost done.
Then God gave John a visio, and we knew we'd already won.
Life is a baseball game, being played every day.
each and every one can play.
Jesus is standing at home plate, and He's waiting for you there.
You know life is a baseball game, But you've got to play it fair.