This blog has not taken the direction that I thought it would this year. Then again neither has this year. I write this entry 11 months after the Covid-19 virus tragically raged through Wuhan, China and then throughout the rest of the world. In March, a MLS season still seemed possible until it didn’t. Shortly after the Portland game my attention was pulled elsewhere as the virus started to surge on the coasts and make it way into the Great Lakes. The season, like so many aspects of life, were placed on hold.
Then, as MLS was putting in place measures for a restart, on May 25, 2020 a man named George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police. Floyd’s death underlined the racial injustices, systematic racism, and institutional violence experienced on a daily basis by Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC). Protests followed not only in Minneapolis and St. Paul, but also across the United States and the world. The issues highlighted were not new or unknown. Activists and community leaders have been working to confront these issues for years, but during the summer of 2020 they gained a greater sense of urgency.
As the MLS opened the regular season again, players from around the league came together to raise each other’s voices in solidarity. They form the Black Players for Change committed to action beyond the powerful 8 minute and 46 seconds moments of silence held at the beginning of games marking the amount of time elapsed while George Floyd struggled for breath. Floyd’s death may have opened the floodgates, but he was not alone. Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbey, Philando Castile, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, on and on these names of human beings whose lives were shortened because of the racial injustices within our society. Before you keep reading check out Black Players for Change here: https://blackplayersforchange.org/. For more on Black Lives Matter here’s a link https://blacklivesmatter.com/.
Then in the midst of a pandemic and a long overdue societal reckoning with systemic racism, the United States experienced one of the most contentious presidential elections in recent memory, an election in which one of the candidates refused to disavow white supremacy. That same candidate still refuses to concede that he has lost, and instead seems to be set on working towards an administrative coup d’état attempt rather than committing to a peaceful transfer of power.
And so here I sit a day before the first MNUFC playoff game of 2020 thinking… soccer?
With so many other things going on, this blog fell by the wayside, and that’s ok, it is only a hobby. It’s something to have fun with, to send out into the ether occasionally. For some people sports are a frivolous use of our time better spent on working to cure cancer or tear down the systems of oppression that permeate our society. At times I agree, especially when the importance people place on sports is out of balance. Throughout this time of crisis, others have pointed out that sports are often a rallying cry, a welcome distraction, a brief escape, and at their best even able to inspire for good. I think about some of those moments, Jesse Owens’s achievements during the 1936 Olympics Games in Nazi Berlin or the image of Tommie Smith and John Carlos in raising their fists in Mexico in 1968.
When placed in the proper perspective sports, like theater, music, art, all make life more enjoyable and can even change the world for the better. A piece of art that stops you in your tracks with its power and moves you to action changes the world in a small way. A community that forms around the shared enjoyment of a soccer club strengthens our ties to each other. There are a lot of seemingly overwhelming problems in the world that feel far too large for a single individual to address. And of course that is true. The only way to begin to tackle the issues of, a contentious election, a global pandemic, confronting white supremacy, not to mention climate change that continues to lurk in the background, is through collective actions taken together in solidarity by our larger society.
It’s been an impactful year for me both personally and professionally. As MNUFC season starts to wind down I find myself carving out a little more time to watch a few more games. I cannot always watch these games with my family and friends, but even knowing they were watching the same game as me helps me feel closer to those I still cannot be with. They also provided 90 minutes for my brain to shut down its analytical processing and simply enjoy something.
I’m picking this blog up now not because any of these issues have been resolved. Despite recent positive news about a vaccine, Covid-19 will continue to rage across the world until at least next spring, the overt as well as the insidious nature of systemic racism continues to plague the United States, and even the current election has rocked once stable American political structures. In my own corner of the world, I am trying to figure out how I can be part of a positive solution to these issues.
This is a soccer blog and so the analogy is low hanging fruit, but collectively, when 11 individuals know their role and together use their talents towards accomplishing a larger purpose, they can create moments that transcend sports. They can overcome obstacles too large for a single individual to accomplish. I’m still learning and finding my role in all of this, but I hope many of you are doing so as well and together we can bend the world towards greater equity, justice, and avoid environmental destruction.
In the meantime I am following the Loons just a little bit more closely because those 90 minutes provide a respite and reenergize me for the work ahead. So I hope to continue with this blog. Maybe not with the frequency or energy I imagined it would have, but with it all in the proper perspective. Keep a lookout for a few more posts throughout the playoffs from 12th Loon.
12th Loon 