Manfred right, Franklin wrong on Rose, Jackson Hall of Fame eligibility

 Manfred right, Franklin wrong on Rose, Jackson Hall of Fame eligibility

 

Dr. Cory Franklin’s commentary ‘The lessons of ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson and the MLB’s rewriting of history’ completely misses the point of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s reinstatement of Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson and 16 other banned major leaguers to eligibility in the Hall of Fame.

 

Franklin’s hyperbolic focus on Shoeless Joe makes a specious argument that his reinstatement will fuel revisionist history that Jackson was an innocent bystander to the fix. Then Franklin spends most of his commentary proving Jackson did aid the fix. That is totally unnecessary since the verdict of history is clear that Jackson participated. Franklin somehow missed that Manfred’s decree said nothing about Jackson’s guilt or innocence since that was irrelevant to his reasoning. Jackson is eligible simply because he’s dead and no longer a danger to America’s pastime.

 

What’s worse is Franklin’s personal attack on Manfred. He did it to suck up to the gambling industry. He did it to suck up to Trump. Pure speculation.

 

Worse yet, Franklin then i makes the outrageous claim that while at Harvard Law “history’s lessons failed to make (Manfred’s) curriculum.” Good grief, can Franklin stoop any lower to demean Manfred?

 

Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe both belong in the Hall, and hopefully their descendants will live to see their enshrinement. Rose’s astonishing 4,256 hits, most of over 23,000 to play, should put him there. Jackson’s place should be sealed by fourth best career .356 batting average, just 10 points behind Ty Cobb’s career leading .366.

 

It’s Franklin, not Manfred rewriting history. Leaving both out is the rewriting of history we should oppose. When Rose and Jackson are enshrined, their involvement with illegal gambling (Rose), and fixing a World Series (Jackson) should be prominently displayed in their history.

 

Both their inspiring accomplishments and their sorrowful misdeeds are part of their legacy and should be presented to visitors viewing their story at the Hall of Fame. That, and not their erasure from the game, is worthy history.

Walt Zlotow   Glen Ellyn IL 

substack.com/@waltzlotow

Some US military orders that should be disobeyed

 Some US military orders that should be disobeyed

Loading up or flying planes to Israel with tons of weapons that have already killed over 100,000 Palestinians. Any service member doing that is guilty of assisting genocide…the worst crime any servicemember can commit.


Loading up or flying planes bombing small, unarmed boats near Venezuela. This is premeditated mass murder of unknown persons. US makes sure all the boaters are killed so no record of their innocence is retained. Every one of the hundred or more boaters killed in 20 such sinkings emanated from military orders that were illegal and should have been resisted.


The US military is not content with illegal orders to support Israeli genocide in Gaza and obliterating small unarmed boats off Venezuela. Their Commander In Chief Trump has ordered 100 bombing strikes on imagined bad guys in Somalia this year. Does even one American in a million believe the lies emanating from Trump’s military that this mass murder in Somalia is crucial to protect the Homeland. Orders to relentlessly bomb a pitifully poor country 7,800 miles from America, posing no threat whatsoever, are illegal and should be disobeyed.


Granted its not easy to risk banishment from service, possibly even being imprisoned for disobeying these illegal orders. But one service member took such resistance to heroic status. In February 2024 U.S. Air Force serviceman Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. to protest US support of Israel's genocide in Gaza.

Refusing to obey illegal orders to commit premeditated murder is the least that patriotic service members can do to end Uncle Sam’s worldwide killing rampage. We should commend the 6 members of Congress for reminding and supporting them to do that.

What I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving

 What I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving

 

When I enjoy Thanksgiving dinner this Thursday, my 81st in a long and peaceful life, I'll be thankful the world has not stumbled into nuclear war.

 

Don't remember my first Thanksgiving, November 22, 1945, as I was only 8 months old. But on that day Japanese civilians were still dying, suffering horribly amid their  ruined cities from America’s unnecessary atomic bombings.

 

Learned about them in 1951 and have been haunted by their images ever since. We were warned by our government that nuclear war could break out any moment with new US arch enemy Soviet Russia. We practiced Duck and Cover in school, a well-intentioned but ludicrous exercise in futility.

 

Still remember the 13 days of Cuban Missile Crisis as a high school senior. Pondered if I’d get thru the school day without mushroom clouds appearing, and whether I’d awake the next morning.

 

Welcomed JFK’s pivot to peace and disarmament afterwards. Some progress with nuclear treaties followed. The Soviet Union dissolved. Both presaged less likelihood of nuclear Armageddon

 

But America squandered that momentum. Today, the risk of nuclear war may be greater than any time since that 1962 Missile Crisis. The US dumped 3 nuclear treaties with Russia and on the cusp of exiting the last one, New Start, next February. We’re at war with Russia in Ukraine for 4 years as well. Even tho Ukraine is doing all the dying, our near $200 billion in weapons and support keep the specter of it going nuclear every day it continues.

 

What’s changed since I listened to our government warn me about imminent nuclear war back in 1951? The saddest, most irresponsible thing of all….it’s no longer warned about; indeed not even mentioned.

 

So this Thanksgiving I’ll pause for just a moment amid the family camaraderie and give thinks we’ve dodged the nuclear bullet once again to enjoy another Thanksgiving.

 

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL

Thanks to US, in Gaza it’s death by a thousand planes

 Thanks to US, in Gaza it’s death by a thousand planes

In 1948 the US launched an airlift of food and supplies to keep Berliners fed and healthy during the Soviet blockade of allies from Berlin. During the airlift’s 15 months, US planes delivered over 1,800,000 tons of life sustaining material…a humanitarian gesture for the ages.

Twenty-six months ago the US embarked on another airlift. Alas, this one was not humanitarian. It was to further Israeli genocide that has largely obliterated Gaza’s 139 square miles. Even with the not so peaceful ceasefire, America keeps airlifting in supplies to keep killing and degrading hapless Palestinians trapped in the ruins. Over 300 slaughtered and 900 wounded since ceasefire began 45 days ago. Israel just received planeload number 1,000. Along with 150 cargo ships, the US air/sea lift has poured into Israel over 120,000 tons of advanced munitions, weapons, armored vehicles, medical equipment, communications systems, and personal protective equipment.

Besides destroying Gaza, US war material supports Israel’s destruction of Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Yemen, West Bank; even bombing imagined bad guys in US ally Qatar.

Whew! That takes a lot of US treasure that could be used to provide health care for all, end food insufficiency for 50 million sufferers, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, convert to green energy, among other critically needed uplifting of the commons. How much treasure squandered on all that death and destruction? Over $21 Billion for Gaza alone with another $12 billion for Israel’s other bombing and terror campaigns.

Back in 1948 the beleaguered Berliners proclaimed the US Berlin airlift heaven sent. Seventy-seven years on, desperately starving and sick Palestinians not yet killed under American bombs dropped from US plans view the US genocidal airlift as arising from the lowest level of hell.

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL