Properly Subversive/Sherman R. Frederick
There is more than a bit of irony in the unfolding story of WNBA star Brittney Griner, who sits in a Russian jail after being detained for allegedly transporting hashish oil in her luggage.
Don’t get me wrong. This is not a condemnation of Griner, a seven-time WNBA All-Star and two-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year. She’s as much a political prisoner as anyone in the post U.S./Russia tension over the war in Ukraine.
But the WNBA as a sports league has for years used the freedoms cherished in this county to roast the United States for being a rotten country filled with institutional aggression against people of color. Many of the WNBA players and fans use the sport to denounce the ‘evil’ American status quo and for just about every liberal cause the sports leaders can think of.
Free speech exercised by the WNBA is, of course, wonderful. But it is ironic that the country that allows such tolerance is now the country the WNBA is begging to “do something” to get Ms. Griner back on U.S. soil.
Weird, right?
Griner wanted the WNBA to stop playing the National Anthem before games. That was then. Now she’s experiencing what a real “evil” country is like. The irony is compounded when you know that Griner appealed to the liberal Biden Administration for help, and no help came for months.
Griner’s wife told Good Morning America that she reached out to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow 11 times and received zero response. Zero, she said. What kind of Embassy doesn’t return phone calls from Americans in trouble?
It wasn’t until the case reached national attention did the Embassy get involved. And, so far, the Embassy has failed to get the job done.
Look, Griner needs help. And, Biden should pull out the stops to get her released and returned to America. Whatever it takes, do it.
And, if it is not too much to ask, the WNBA might want to take an introspective moment and consider ending the nightly knee-bending ritual of calling America an evil, racist country.
Just a thought.
ONE MORE THING
– I will make no more Great Lakes jokes from Huron out.
– Men keep secrets better than women because they weren’t really listening anyway.
– What did Spartacus say when the lion ate his wife? Nothing. He was gladiator.
Until next week, avoid soreheads, laugh a little and always question authority.
(“Properly Subversive” is commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick for the Novato Advance, San Rafael News-Pointer, Mill Valley Herald, Ross Valley Reporter, Twin City Times and the Sausalito Marin Scope. Mr. Frederick is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
Just stupid bringing cannabis anywhere is risky ( including other states with only medical cannabis). But Russian laws are like not good