Bay Area

Opinion: The Veep Debate, Goodbye to the A’s and Shohei Ohtani (Our new Bruce Lee)

Due to publishing deadlines, I regret I won’t be commenting on Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate. Why even bother watching? CBS, in an outright concession to the truth-challenged GOP, has announced moderators will not fact check the debaters in real time. That means that the night is sure to be full of lies.

Published

2 years ago

October 5, 2024

Oakland Post

The Oakland Coliseum. iStock

By Emil Guillermo

Due to publishing deadlines, I regret I won’t be commenting on Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate.

Why even bother watching? CBS, in an outright concession to the truth-challenged GOP, has announced moderators will not fact check the debaters in real time. That means that the night is sure to be full of lies.

Last weekend, Trump called Vice President Kamala Harris “mentally impaired,” and “mentally disabled.” What kind of person who wants to be president makes those kinds of slanderous attacks?

And I had thought Trump couldn’t top his Haitians-eating-dogs-and-cats-in-Springfield-Ohio lie. That’s one that’s been thoroughly debunked, but that hasn’t stopped its spread by vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance and Trump.

It’s amazing that 120 years ago in St. Louis, the GOP had a different take on dog eating. In 1904, a White entrepreneur brought nearly 1,500 Filipinos to be part of the largest exhibit at the World’s Fair. It was essentially a human zoo, where Filipinos dressed in native dress, showed off their lifestyle, which included dog on the menu.

Back then, the GOP used it to justify America’s imperial desires in the Philippines and elsewhere. To show a Filipino eating dog appealed to some Americans and proved that the Filipinos must be civilized! For humanity’s sake.

Yesterday’s colonial embrace has become today’s negative xenophobic attack, an anti-immigration and racist smearing to gin up votes.

On the loss of the A’s

Born in San Francisco, I am the worst kind of Bay Area nativist. My parents didn’t own a car. I was stuck on the wrong side of the Bay and never got out of the Mission District. All I knew was San Francisco. Oakland was an exotic, foreign land. Until it got baseball.

I was a baseball fan in his prime: 12-years old. With the announcement that the A’s would be in Oakland, the Coliseum became my baseball mecca.

I loved everything about the A’s and their eccentric owner, Charley Finley. Their white shoes. The mechanical contraption that would pop up from behind homeplate to give a basket of baseballs to the umpire. And the players: Campy Campaneris. Sal Bando. Joe Rudi. They weren’t losers. In time, with Vida Blue and Reggie Jackson, they’d be world beaters.

Goodbye to the A’s. I will never forget the team that made me love Oakland.

Shohei Ohtani Is Our New Bruce Lee

So, the A’s are gone, but we can still root for the greatest baseball player EVER from afar. I’m talking about the great Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Yes, that last part is painful.

But there is no doubt now. The first player to hit 51 home runs and steal 51 bases? It has never been done before. Good thing he got that 51^st stolen base or Ohtani would be 51-50. (That would get him committed in California).

Keep in mind Babe Ruth may have had 51 home runs and 51 hot dogs. But Ohtani’s feat is remarkable in that it shows an unprecedented combination of speed and power.

And Asian-ness. But not his Asian American-ness, because he is an “Asian IN America.”

It’s a fine difference. Still, for AAPIs like myself, we are starved for heroes and role models who look like us. Ohtani is the new Bruce Lee. He’s Our guy.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He does a micro talk show on YouTube.com/@emilamok1