Day 26,115 was Sunday, May 20, 2012. With Carron along we went to Ames, Iowa, on the Iowa State University campus, to see Carron's daughter and our granddaughter ( Ellen and husband Ryan) at their apartment. We went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant and then took a tour of the campus. Iowa State has a very nice campus - I was impressed. (There was no walk today.)
Today is Monday, May 21, 2012, day 26,116 - another nice day with sun and temps in the 70s. I'm grateful for another day of "I'm HIV. This morning I lifted weights and walked 37 minutes - 2.0 miles for a May total of 48.8 miles.
CAN YOU IMAGINE? or WOULD YOU BELIEVE? After reading Mike Hlas' sports column in this morning's Gazette the previous capitalized thoughts came to mind. Yesterday, in Newton, Iowa, there was a NASCAR race. There was something different about this race in that there was an 18-year-old African-American kid driving one of the cars. His name is Darrel "Bubba" Wallace Jr. NASCAR has been almost a 100% lily-white sport forever. I say almost because there was a black guy, named Walter Scott, who won the 1963 NASCAR Grand National (now Sprint Cup) race in Jacksonville, Florida. It remains the only victory by an African-American in stock car racing's top circuit.
But there is more to the story. And this is where my "CAN YOU IMAGINE?" and WOULD YOU BELIEVE?" words come into play. When the 1963 race in Jacksonville ended, a white guy, named Buck Baker, was declared the winner and was given the trophy. The only trouble was that Buck was two laps behind when Walter Scott, the black guy, crossed the finish line. Hours after the race ended, NASCAR officials told Scott what he already knew. Which was that he had won. Now listen to this - the NASCAR officials declared the white guy the winner because there were fears the crowd would riot if a black man was given the victory.
THE GOOD NEWS IS TWO THINGS: 1. NASCAR is now actively recruiting African-Americans and other minorities to get into racing. 2. We have made some progress in America in the past 50 years in regard to race relations and in regard to justice and fairness for all Americans.
(By the way, Bubba Wallace came in 9th yesterday - pretty good for an 18-year-old.)
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