{"id":12940,"date":"2013-05-08T18:54:02","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T22:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=12940"},"modified":"2013-05-16T18:54:55","modified_gmt":"2013-05-16T22:54:55","slug":"42-meets-44","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2013\/05\/42-meets-44","title":{"rendered":"42 meets 44"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Warner Brothers\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.detroitnews.com\/politics\/files\/RobinsonReese_WarnerBros.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<aside id=\"sharetools\">\n<div id=\"sharelinks\">\n<div>\n<ul id=\"textresizer\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.detroitnews.com\/politics\/2013\/05\/08\/42-meets-44\/#nogo\">A<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.detroitnews.com\/politics\/2013\/05\/08\/42-meets-44\/#nogo\">A<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.detroitnews.com\/politics\/2013\/05\/08\/42-meets-44\/#nogo\">A<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"artpagination\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Warner Brothers\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.detroitnews.com\/politics\/files\/RobinsonReese_WarnerBros.jpg\" width=\"680\" height=\"340\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Warner Brothers<\/p>\n<p>42 meet 44.<\/p>\n<p>The remarkable story of Jackie Robinson \u2013 No. 42, the Majors\u2019 first black player \u2013 is an inspiring motion picture well worth the price of admission. The movie has received glowing reviews amidst a national appreciation of Robinson\u2019s feat. Meanwhile, the story of Barack Obama, our 44th \u2013 and first black \u2013 president is no less inspiring. Yet while Robinson united us, Obama has divided.<\/p>\n<p>The contrast is a telling commentary on teamwork.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the movie 42\u2032s feel-good vibe, America in 1947 was,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/online\/blogs\/movies\/2013\/04\/42-and-the-jackie-robinson-story.html\">historians tell us<\/a>, a deeply hostile world for blacks, still two decades shy of the Civil Rights Act and MLK\u2019s extraordinary marches. Robinson, unlike Obama in 2008, was not welcomed into the majors by even his own locker mates. Yet his scintillating performance over time transcended race as he\u00a0demanded the respect of resistant teammates and the sports world, achieving baseball\u2019s MVP in 1949.<\/p>\n<p>By contrast, Obama has squandered the good feelings of his first election, proving himself to be an aloof, partisan class warrior. His daily schedule betrays a politician resistant to leadership as he spends little \u2013 if any \u2013 time in Washington trying to build coalitions to take on America\u2019s enormous challenges. He re-election in 2012 was hardly an MVP bid \u2013 but a scorched earth campaign urging a vote\u00a0<i>against the other guy<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Obama\u2019s election and Robinson\u2019s first game in the majors are iconic moments. But No. 42 then exploited his prodigious talent to make baseball a better place. Too bad the same cannot be said of No. 44\u2032s Washington<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A A A Warner Brothers 42 meet 44. The remarkable story of Jackie Robinson \u2013 No. 42, the Majors\u2019 first black player \u2013 is an inspiring motion picture well worth the price of admission. The movie has received glowing reviews amidst a national appreciation of Robinson\u2019s feat. Meanwhile, the story of Barack Obama, our 44th [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12940"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12941,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12940\/revisions\/12941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}