PAGE A6, KEIZERTIMES, FEBRUARY 7, 2020
Opinion
The legacy of Kobe
State of the Union as
reality TV entertainment
The State of the Union address
on Tuesday, Feb. 4, was worthy of a
reality televison show. It had some-
thing for every viewer. It had some-
thing for people to hurrah and for
others to disdain.
The event started on
a startling note when
the President seemed
to ignore House Speak-
er Nancy Pelosi’s out-
stretched hand before
he began speaking. Did
he not notice she was
attempting to shake his
hand? Did he snub her?
It is open to interpretation.
The non-handshake was book-
ended with the Speaker method-
ically tearing up a copy of the
speech at the end of the president’s
speech. Pelosi dramatically tore it in
half, making a grand gesture on her
feelings about the speech she just
heard. Explaining her decision to
tear up the speech, Pelosi said, “It
was the courteous thing to do con-
sidering the alternative.”
During the address the president
announced that he was bestowing
the National Medal of Freedom on
one of his galley guests, radio talk
show host Rush Limbaugh. The
fi rst lady then pinned the medal on
him.
Presidents routinely invite guests
to the State of the Union and rec-
ognizes them during the speech.
One of the other guests this week
was a military wife and mother. Af-
ter praising her and other military
families for their sacrifi ces, the pres-
ident said he had a surprise for her,
then announced that her husband
was back from deployment in Af-
ghanistan. It was moment worthy
of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
The evening was also punctuated
with the walk out of four Demo-
cratic representatives; each had their
own reasons for leaving.
Republican members
of Congress applauded
many times during the
address, especially when
the president touted the
state of the economy.
They gave standing ova-
tions when he touted the
low unemployment rate
among the demographic groups
that historically have high rates.
The State of the Union address
is a political statement. The formal
basis for the address is from Article
II of the Constitution, which says
the president, from time to time
shall give to the Congress informa-
tion of the State of the Union, and
recommend to their consideration
such measures as he shall judge nec-
essary and expedient. A president
has a lot of latitude on how they
do that.
We shouldn’t be surprised by
a State of the Union address that
refl ects the president’s reality TV
background. Reality TV is enter-
tainment and that is what the na-
tion got Tuesday night.
Donald Trump is the president.
People may support or oppose his
policies and political style, but re-
spect for the offi ce should always
be paramount for the people and
members of Congress.
—LAZ
our
opinion
Antidote to winter doldrums
Winter is a time to hibernate,
nest, get cozy, stay indoors, where it
is toasty and warm.
For those not taking part in snow
sports this time of year, the Keizer
and Salem area offers entertainment
of a more cerebral kind: live theater.
The Salem Theatre Network
(STN) is an alliance of 13 organi-
zations that promotes life theatre in
the mid-Willamette Valley region.
Members of STN include Pentacle
Theatre, Enlightened Theatrics and
our own Keizer Homegrown The-
atre. Each of the theatre companies
offer shows with casts that include
our friends and neighbors.
These are 13 antidotes to “there’s
nothing to do around here.” Local-
ly, Keizer Homegrown Theatre will
kick off its 2020 season on Friday
Feb. 14, with Love, Loss and What I
Wore, by Nora and Delia Ephron,
at its theatre in the Keizer Cultural
Center. Winter is the weak time for
new movies, but a strong time for
live theater in the area.
Many fi rst-time theater audienc-
es ask themselves why they didn’t
go sooner. The offerings include ev-
erything from drama to comedy to
suspense, and sometimes musicals.
Most times tickets to local theater
production are less than tickets to
whatever is showing at a cineplex.
Aside from the thrill of live theater
is the joy of spending less money
for an evening’s entertainment.
Appearing in the coming weeks
are such diverse shows as First Date,
a musical, staged by Enlighted The-
atrics at Salem’s Grand Theater; Ag-
atha Christie’s Murder on the Orient
Express at Pentacle Theatre; Revolt.
She Said. Revolt Again. at Willamette
University’s M. Lee Pelton Theatre
and Midsummer, a play with adult
themes at Verona Studio in Salem’s
Reed Opera House.
Art should make one think,
laugh or cry. There are things to
do in the Keizer and Salem area in
the doldrums of winter and one of
those things is live theater, passion-
ately staged by local people who
only want to create and entertain.
— LAZ
By MATT RAWLINGS
When I was younger, I hated
Kobe Bryant.
I didn’t actually hate him as a hu-
man, I just hated that he would con-
tinuously torch my favorite team. As
a Portland Trail Blazers fan, Kobe
and the Los Angeles Lakers ripped
my heart out of my chest more times
than I could remember.
Whether it was the
infamous alley-oop to
Shaq in Game 7 of the
2000 Western Confer-
ence Finals or the im-
possible game-winning
3-pointer in the fi nal
game of the 2004 season,
Kobe crushed Blazer fans
for the better part of two
decades.
Off the court, I was never a fan
of Kobe either. He cursed more than
any athlete I’ve ever witnessed. I
thought he was selfi sh and oftentimes
a bad teammate.
And no matter how much time
passed, I never forgot how he was
accused of sexual assault in 2003.
Although the case was dropped by
prosecutors after 14 months, the situ-
ation, at very best, should be viewed
as morally abhorrent.
But on the morning of Jan. 26,
I cried real tears over a man that I
didn’t know — and didn’t particu-
larly like.
When my little brother texted me
that Kobe Bryant had died in a he-
licopter crash, I didn’t believe him.
I checked every website I could to
see if anyone would refute the re-
port. When the reality set in, I found
myself having trouble grappling with
my emotions.
It’s been nearly two weeks since
Kobe, his 13-year old daughter Gi-
anna and seven others lives were
taken in a fateful helicopter crash in
in Calabasas, California. And still, I
fi nd myself reading a story or watch-
ing a video about Kobe that brings
my emotions swarming back. It has
caused me to wrestle with why his
death, and the deaths of others on
board, has affected me so greatly.
Sure, I have good memories of
Kobe. I watched him play for almost
my entire life. He grew up in front of
the world.
I will always remember watching
the gold medal game at the 2008
Olympics against Spain with my dad
and my brothers and seeing Kobe
take over the game, putting USA
basketball back in global domination.
I will always remember watching
Kobe’s fi nal game with my bud-
dy Jordan, and seeing #24 drop 60
on the Utah Jazz as he bid farewell
to the game that he had played his
whole life.
But the thing is, Kobe’s impact,
and the impact of this devastating
accident, was far greater than Kobe’s
basketball career.
For more than half of his 41 years
on Earth, Kobe seemed larger than
life. I believe that’s one of the reasons
his death was a shock to so many
people — it was a reminder how
temporary and fragile life is.
Hours after Kobe’s death, it was
almost surreal to witness what was
unfolding on on television and social
media.
One of the things I admired about
Kobe’s post-basketball life was that,
being the father of four daughters, he
was an incredible advocate for wom-
en’s sports.
Kobe had visited with the Uni-
versity of Oregon women’s basket-
ball team on numerous occasions and
developed a particularly close friend-
ship with Sabrina Ionescu — one of
the top players in the country.
Oregon was sched-
uled to play a nationally
televised game with Or-
egon State less than three
hours after the death of
Kobe. When I saw Io-
nescu on the verge of
sobbing while warming
up to play, I too began to
weep.
I continued to be teary-eyed
when I saw the reaction of a litany
of sports personalities trying, and ul-
timately failing, to hold back their
emotions. I cried some more when
I thought of the families who would
never see their loved ones again, and
for Kobe’s wife of nearly 20 years,
Vanessa, who has to raise three girls
while dealing with the loss of her
husband and daughter.
But through this tragedy, we were
able to see something beautiful.
It’s not a leap to say that this coun-
try has never been more divided
politically. And with the upcoming
2020 presidential election, that divi-
sion will likely grow more and more.
But I have always believed that
sports are the great unifi er. And we
have been able to witness that over
the past two weeks.
On the day of Kobe’s death, thou-
sands of people of different races,
political ideologies, religions, gen-
ders and sexual orientations gath-
ered outside of Staples Center in Los
Angeles to mourn the loss of one of
their heroes.
About 1,000 miles north of Sta-
ples Center, before the Oregon and
Oregon State women’s basketball
teams got set to play in a top 10
showdown in Corvallis, OR. State
senior Maddie Washington was the
fi rst to walk to the other side of the
court to console members of the Or-
egon team.
Moments later, the two teams
were locked arm-in-arm at mid-
court, engaging in prayer.
“I know we’re supposed to be ri-
vals, but when you see someone in
pain, you just want to put your arms
around them,” Thompson said.
In the coming days, people
weren’t just mourning the death of
their favorite basketball player, they
were celebrating the life of a man
who inspired them.
Much has been made about Ko-
be’s mantra of having of “Mam-
ba Mentality.” What does having a
“Mamba Mentality” mean? Kobe put
it this way:
“Mamba mentality is all about
focusing on the process and trusting
in the hard work when it matters
most. It’s the ultimate mantra for the
competitive spirit. It started just as a
hashtag that came to me one day, and
it’s grown into something athletes —
and even non-athletes — embrace as
a mindset.”
“Hard work outweighs talent
— every time. Mamba mentality is
about 4 a.m. workouts, doing more
the
mind
of matt
than the next guy and then trusting
in the work you’ve put in when it’s
time to perform. Without studying,
preparation and practice, you’re leav-
ing the outcome to fate. I don’t do
fate.”
I never thought Kobe was the
greatest basketball player ever. But I
don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone —
athlete or non-athlete — work hard-
er at his craft than Kobe.
The man was a world-class athlete
and an absolute artist on the basket-
ball fl oor, but it was the having the
mindset that nobody was going to
outwork him was what separated
him from the normal star athlete.
It’s been well documented that
many athletes struggle to adjust to
normal life once their career is over.
But people close to Kobe claimed
that he had never been more content
than when he was retired.
Kobe used the “Mamba Mental-
ity” to attack every phase of his life
with tenacity, especially when it came
to being a father of his four girls.
On many days, I view social media
as a toxic cesspool of nonsense. But
over the last couple weeks, it’s been
amazing to see the stories from peo-
ple — from all walks of life — that
were inspired by Kobe.
Even people who didn’t follow
sports were infl uenced by Kobe.
There were numerous accounts
shared on social media of how peo-
ple used Kobe’s motto to get through
the suffering and the struggles that
life often brings.
I also loved seeing the stories of
those who had the chance to meet
Kobe later in his life and share how
he was humble, how he provided ad-
vice and became a mentor to many
and how much he loved being a “girl
dad.”
But through this whole process, I
still think about and feel for the vic-
tims of sexual assault who may have
been traumatized or triggered by this
situation.
If anyone like me is having trou-
ble processing their complex and
complicated feelings on the death of
Kobe, I have a piece of advice.
It’s okay to mourn a fl awed per-
son — because at the end of the day,
we’re all incredibly fl awed.
I have never been accused of a
heinous crime, but I fall short on a
daily basis.
Over the course of my 28 years on
Earth, I have had bouts of total self-
ishness. I have lied and I have contin-
uously failed the ones that I love. I sin
on a daily basis.
But when I come face-to-face
with my own mortality, my hope
is that people won’t remember my
long list of shortcomings. My hope
is that, instead, people will remember
the times that I succeeded. The times
that I served people well and loved
with all my heart.
I believe that former NFL offen-
sive lineman Rich Ohrnberger said
it best:
“We’re all fl awed in some ways.
Nobody is, or has ever been perfect,
but if the sum of your life is worth
being modeled after, you’ve achieved
a lot.”
Kobe Bryant achieved a lot.
(Matt Rawlings is the associate
editor of the Keizertimes.)
The little-known origins of Valentine’s Day
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Why is February 14 celebrated as
the day of love? The answer is not
that buying cards needed a boost. And
there’s actually more to the origin of
Valentine’s Day than just candy, red
roses and another reason to
invite one’s favorite com-
panion to dinner outside
the home.
Though my younger
years were spent in college
classrooms where the sub-
ject was world history, I do
not recall a mention of St.
Valentine. Maybe I drift-
ed off on a warm spring afternoon at
the University of Oregon when the
subject of saints by name of Valentine
came up. Fact is, Valentine’s Day has its
origin in legend. One legend informs
us that a 3rd century emperor, Mar-
cus Aurelius Claudius Gothicus, also
known a Claudius II, found it diffi cult
to fi nd men to join his army because,
he believed, the men around were too
attached to their wives to fi ght wars.
He, of course, chose the “logical”
thing to do: he banned all marriag-
es. Yet, Claudius II ignored that one
powerful factor that we know mo-
tivates humans to move mountains
for one another. What’s that? You
guessed it—love.
Meanwhile, there was a local man
by the name of St. Valentine. Valentine
viewed the emperor’s action as a pro-
found injustice and thereby decided
to do something about it. Thumb-
ing his nose at the emperor, he went
about the land offi ciating at the mar-
riage of young couples. Valentine
may have hoped to keep his activity
a secret. However, when Claudius
II discovered Valentine’s
treachery he had him ar-
rested, beaten and had him
hanged.
The more one re-
searches the subject, the
more there is to learn.
One of the most popular
symbols of Valentine’s Day
is Cupid, the Roman god
of love. There’s also the tale of another
Valentine, a Christian priest, who was
jailed for performing miracles. From
his prison cell, it’s alleged he wrote to
a local lady he’d cured of blindness.
Legend has it, he signed his letter,
“From your Valentine.”
The ancient Romans also cele-
brated the feast of Luperalia, a spring
festival held on the 15th of February
whose reported events are too lewd to
describe in a family newspaper. With
the coming into prominence of
Christianity, the holiday moved to
February 14. Ultimately, a few hun-
dred years ago, Christians came to cel-
ebrate February 14 as a special day in
recognition of early Christian martyrs
named Valentine.
The custom of choosing a sweet-
heart on this date spread throughout
Europe in the Middle Ages. Lat-
er, Valentine’s Day found its way to
gene h.
mcintyre
the American colonies. Then, too,
throughout much of history during
the last two millennia, people believed
birds picked their mates for them on
February 14. Whatever Valentine’s Day
has brought to humanity, in 496 AD,
Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as
“Valentine’s Day.” It’s never been rec-
ognized an offi cial holiday in Ameri-
ca. While some agree that the greeting
card idea had its origin from a Valen-
tine’s jail cell in olden times.
Yes, my life is richer and more
fulfi lling because I am a most-enrap-
turing Valentine. Speaking from the
heart about things I love beyond my
personal love interest, I confess an en-
during affection for the fi nest heart-
felt music: the treasure of romance in
the musical masterpieces produced by
George Gershwin. For now and our
future, love, along with job opportuni-
ties and human dignity are the funda-
mentals for survival in America with
emphasis on expressing love, as a tool
of universal communication, every
way, every day, not just reserved for
February 14 as love cannot be over-
stated.
(Gene H. McIntyre lives in Keizer.
He shares his opinion frequently in
the Keizertimes.)
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