Impromptus

Officiating in America, &c.

By
Umpin’ (StushD80/iStock/Getty Images)
On youth sports and our culture; Turkey and its horrors; Confederate generals and U.S. military bases; scenes from Chicago; and more

This column, like other columns, has recurring themes. One of them is: It’s become almost impossible to be a Little League ump. Or a youth-sports official at all. The public has become impossible. Parents are nasty and sometimes violent. Last year, I had a column headed “Punching the ump, &c.” In it, I linked to a news report that said, “Amid increasing abuse, officials flee youth sports.”

Bear with me a moment. In 2014, I wrote a piece about policing. It was called “A Job Like No Other.” An excerpt, if you don’t mind:

I once had the experience of umping a baseball game — calling balls and strikes. It was miserable. I had always played baseball, and watched baseball, and I knew the game exceptionally well (if I say so myself). But I’d had no idea umping was so hard. From then on, I had greater sympathy for umps and refs. I thought that athletes, and maybe fans, should have to ump or ref a bit. That would make them less judgmental.

And I’m just talking about games! What about life-and-death situations out on the streets? Maybe we should all police, for an hour or two.

May I share with you a report published the other day? It is here — and headed “In this youth baseball league, fans who mistreat umpires are sentenced to do the job themselves.” Well, I’ll be damned. Good. Good idea. Hope it teaches them something.

• When I first heard about it, I didn’t quite believe it. But it’s true. The Turkish government has an agency called the “Office for Human Abductions and Executions.” How’s that for candor? The office is an arm of the Turkish intelligence service. They kidnap people abroad and force them back to Turkey, to face the horrors of prison — or to face the grave, which may be preferable. They kidnap Turkish critics in exile.


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I wrote about this in 2019, in a piece called “Whisked Away: The Turkish government and its program of kidnappings.”

Here is a news item from Friday: “A Turkish-Kyrgyz educator who was abducted by Turkish agents in Kyrgyzstan in 2021 has been sentenced to 21 years in prison . . .” Yes — that’s what they do. (To read the article, go here.)

The world at large lets the regime of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan get away with a lot. Turkey remains the largest jailer of journalists in the world — and that includes China and Iran. Imagine.

• In 2018, Erdoğan staged a sham referendum. Viktor Orbán was the only European Union leader to congratulate him on it. The U.S. president, Donald Trump, congratulated him too. Erdoğan then staged an inauguration. The only EU leader to attend it was Orbán. Also in attendance were Dmitri Medvedev of Russia (who was standing in for Putin) and Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela. Maduro said that Erdoğan was a “leader of the new multipolar world.”

Erdoğan has once more staged an election, followed by an inauguration. Again, the only EU leader to attend was Orbán. Plenty of dictators were in attendance, among them Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and Togo’s Faure Gnassingbé. (In 2018, I wrote about a magnificent young woman who is a leader of the democratic opposition to Gnassingbé. Her name is Farida Nabourema. She is in exile, of course. For “Daughter of Togo,” go here.)

• Last week, The Dispatch published an article headed “Turkey and Hungary Continue to Block Sweden’s NATO Bid.” This is another way in which Erdoğan and Orbán have teamed up. Will tell you something interesting. Also on the guest list at the Erdoğan inauguration? A former prime minister of Sweden, Carl Bildt. Perhaps some diplomacy was taking place . . .

• I have been writing about UNESCO my entire writing life — specifically, I have been writing about U.S. membership of UNESCO. We’re in, we’re out. We’re in again, we’re out again. The issues are interesting. Not necessarily clear-cut.

Reagan withdrew the U.S. from UNESCO in 1984. George W. Bush saw fit to rejoin in 2003. Trump withdrew us in 2018. And now? “US decides to rejoin UNESCO and pay back dues, to counter Chinese influence.” For that article, go here. I hope this is the right move.

Perhaps I could tell a story — a story I got from Bernard Lewis. When he was at Princeton, the university invited Golda Meir to speak. A member of the audience asked a question: “Why is it that the PLO belongs to UNESCO while Israel does not?” (I believe that Israel was suspended at the time, or on the sidelines somehow. Not quite sure. The story is a winner regardless.)

Golda answered, “Well, let’s see: ‘UNESCO’ stands for ‘United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.’ Obviously, the Palestinians have more to contribute to education, science, and culture than we do.”

Ah, Golda . . .

• Republicans have a cause — not just Bud Light, but this:

My view is different. I say, Long live Fort Liberty — liberty being the antithesis of what the Confederacy stood for. As General Grant said, the Confederate cause was “one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse.”

Another presidential candidate:

I have been against political correctness since the day I was born. But taking a Confederate general’s name off a U.S. military base and renaming it “Liberty” is not PC, in my book. It is morally sound, and American.

The Confederates had their own country — their own constitution, their own president, their own flag, etc. The CSA was not the USA. They made their choice. They took their stand. Let people honor them if they want, in various ways — but in the names of U.S. military bases?

As George Will says, the Confederates tried to destroy the United States, and for the worst of reasons: to preserve the most evil institution known to man, namely slavery — human bondage.

Here in the 2020s, we can perhaps afford more moral clarity than Americans directly after the war could. There is no need to sweep the Confederacy under the rug or to perfume it. At this remove, we can think, talk, and act straight.

I said pretty much all I have to say on this subject in 2017: “Seeing the Confederacy Clear.” This new cause of restoring the names of Confederate generals to U.S. military bases — I hope that it, too, is a lost cause.

• Also in the news: “Louisiana Army base renamed after World War I Harlem Hellfighter.” That report is from the Army Times, here.

• I love something that Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, said. It has such a beautiful simplicity. He gave $130 million to an arts center in New York. His comment: “I can afford it, and they need the money.”

• Wanna do a little Chicago? I’ve loved this fountain since I was a youth. In England, they had Buckingham Palace. But we in the Midwest had the Buckingham Fountain.

Here is the art institute, at dusk, with some light sneaking in on the right side . . .

Symphonic banners:

(For my recent piece on Maestro Riccardo Muti, go here.)

Approaching Shedd Aquarium . . .

A scene like this don’t never grow old:

Not to be confused with DePauw University, in Indiana:

A garbage can — and I endorse this message:

Have a beautiful week, y’all.

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