Rick Santorum Wants to Get Rid of Democracy and Timbaland Wants to Muzzle Britney Spears
Santorum Says Democracy Doesn't Work, Timbaland Says Women Should Be Muzzled, Hispanics in Movies Same as 16 Years Ago, Asian American Model's Face Replaced by White Woman in Photo, Streisand Sings
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: A Cherokee quote that asks us think about our death as we journey through life.
Rick Santorum Says “Pure Democracy” Doesn’t Work: He openly reveals the GOP’s current campaign against democracy.
Timbaland Wants to “Muzzle” Britney Spears: Music producer offers lame apology for misogyny.
Hispanic Representation in Movies and TV Haven’t Changed in 16 Years: So much for all the pearl-clutching hysterics about “woke Hollywood.”
Antisemitic Woman Mistakenly Crashes Car into Antisemitic HQ: To paraphrase Hamlet, “Thus blind hate doth make idiots of us all.” But especially her.
Asian American Model’s Face Gets Changed to White Face: They didn’t just change her skin, they replaced her entire head. Free speech or hate speech?
Kareem’s Video Break: William Cosgrove wrote that “Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast.” Here we see exactly what he meant.
Barbra Streisand Sings: Her new memoir is nearly 1,000 pages and this rousing song reminds us why we care.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.
Cherokee saying
In 1990, President George H. W. Bush declared November to be National Native American Heritage Month. As with Black History Month (February), Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month (May), Women’s History Month (March), and other months designated to celebrate our ethnic, religious, and gender diversity, the goal isn’t to confine our appreciation to one month, but to elevate our respect and understanding during that time so it raises our awareness not just for that month, but for our entire lives.
After I retired from the NBA, I chose to coach a boy’s high school basketball team on the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Arizona. I got paid $1, but the rewards to me personally were priceless. The community taught me a lot about their culture, past and present. Their patience and generosity helped us form a bond that changed me forever. My time there inspired me to study the histories of other Native American tribes. From those studies, I gained a richer perspective about life. This quote is an homage to that perspective.
“Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice,” encapsulates much of what I learned during my months with the White Mountain Apaches. Witnessing how the community supported each other through their daily struggles reminded me of our responsibility to lift each other up. I knew I wanted to spend my life positively affecting others. I had done that as a sports figure entertaining millions, but I also wanted to help improve people’s lives, both people I knew and those I’d never met.
Which brings us to the tricky part of the quote: “you rejoice” when you die. That doesn’t mean being happy about dying, but being happy that when you inevitably die, you are satisfied with the person you are and the life you have led. That echoes the notion of a “good death” in which the person at the moment of death is content that they have lived a good life that reflects their values. A “bad death” is when, at the end, they realize they have led an inauthentic life, betrayed their moral values, and isolated those around them. They feel regret and shame.
All life leads to the same ending, the only difference is will the world rejoice—or be relieved.
When I die, I don’t want the world to weep only because they lost a basketball player, because that part of my life died years ago. Rather, I want them to miss, however briefly, the person who has spoken out for civil rights for all marginalized people. The person who calls out hypocrisy in the powerful. The person who promotes rational thinking. Who shares squirrel and dance videos. Who DJs cool music twice a week for his Substack community. The person who I am now.
Then I will rejoice.