A good cause will always have a champion, history says so.
The champions always say the same thing,
“…I’m not a Hero!, I’m just a ballplayer.”, “…I’m just doing my job.” or the ever popular,“…I’m just doing the right thing”.
That’s the champion’s calling card.
Their humbleness and their willingness to put the well being of others ahead of theirs.
No matter what the champions say, is exactly that humbleness and the willingness to risk everything for others, what makes them heroes in our eyes.
Roberto Clemente was that kind person, a hero!, and Politics in our Motherland let his dream die shortly after his own tragic death. A good cause without its’ champion just could not survive.
“…Roberto Clemente die in ’72 and nobody has ever lifted a finger to finish his work-ciudad deportiva-Government in Puerto Rico is so corrupted that they allow people in jail to vote, and they even never arrested anybody for killing Camacho.”, Insider.
Although, the preceding quote is very emotionally charged, is also true and factual. Convicted felons in jail have the right to vote and police has never arrested or found a witness in the-broad daylight execution-murder of former professional boxer Hector “Macho” Camacho.
In order to understand that kind of life, you’ve to live…that life!, and yours truly has.
Roberto Clemente is the most revered athlete that ever walked on Puerto Rican soil. He was the first Latin American to be enshrined in Baseball’s Hall of Fame and one of only two Hall of Fame members for whom the mandatory five-year waiting period has ever been waived, the other one being Lou Gehrig in 1939.
He was posthumously presented three civilian medal awards from Presidents of the United States and the cities of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and San Juan, Puerto Rico maintain monuments in his honor.
But his dream project was to built a city where families could enjoy athletics together…his dream city was never finished.
Politicians with questionable character and false charities pocketed the donations of his heart broken fans.
Baseball Last Hero’s former dream is now a sore eye of a waste land, which does an injustice to the man’s good name and it should had been bulldozed decades ago.
Every good cause needs a champion.
Whether it was Brooklyn Dodger’s President, Branch Rickey choosing Jackie Robinson to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball, Vietnam War Protesters choosing to stand as one behind Muhammad Ali or the Civil Movement finding Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Unfortunately, sometimes a good cause without its’ champion can not survive.