Epistle

The difference a day makes. I was ready to write my thoughts on LeBron James and his seeming arrogance in light of his statement following the game 5 loss of his Cavaliers to the Golden State Warriors during the NBA Finals. Speaking at a post-games interview, under the umbrella of flashing lights and crackling microphones and ludicrous shout-outs by dozens of sports journalist wonks, King James was asked if his mental attitude had changed in the series given the state of his team's injury roster. His response: "I feel confident because I'm the best player in the world. It's that simple." Wow, that was a show stopper and lit up the switchboards plenty as the words, "arrogance", "pride", "hubris", were being rattled around through the news cycle and the water cooler chats, both real and cyber. What interested me was the question of arrogance. What is it? Why is it unbecoming and the evil twin to humility? But, my curiosity about the matter of arrogance suddenly became trite the night nine precious souls were blown away during a church Bible study gathering by a 21-year old madman with a handgun and a vendetta against the black community. Awash in his toxic veneer of whiteness and apartheid sensibilities, Dylann Roof visited the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, ready and loaded to kill. He was welcomed into the Bible group by the pastor, Rev. Clementa Pinckney, and following an hour or so of prayer and brotherly communion, he turned his gun on the group and joined the growing ranks of America's mass murderers. And these nine innocents joined the ranks of those slaughtered at the hands of a madman holding and firing and reloading a gun; only this time the murderer was also a racist.  I don't understand racism and I never will. It is illogical, irrational, inexplicable.  I am white and I am sorry.