RBG: Hero. Icon. Dissenter.

At the age of 85, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a legal legend, a feminist hero, a notorious dissenter. She's developed a breathtaking legal legacy while becoming – unexpectedly – a pop culture icon. We know her accomplishments, but we've haven't heard her story. Until now.

"I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks."

With last week's release of the empowering RBG, a revelatory documentary biography that explores the esteemed Justice Ginsburg's truly remarkable life and career, from directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen and co-produced by Storyville Films and CNN Films, we are reminded of her tireless fight for women and equality – of how law can be used for social change.

"People ask me: 'When will there be enough women on the court?' And my answer is 'When there are nine.'"

In RBG, we see up close how Justice Ginsburg balances her personal and professional life. We learn of her energy, her focus, her drive – even her sense of humor. Her confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee – she was nominated by President Bill Clinton – is an anchor and central narrative thread for the 97-minute film in which we see glimpses of both her personal and professional sides.

"I became a lawyer when women were not wanted by the legal profession."

Justice Ginsburg's professional energy is shown time and again throughout the film, of which I saw a sneak preview in a northwest Washington, D.C., theater five days before its release date in selected cities. Inside the Supreme Court Building, we see Justice Ginsburg's personal office decorated in colorful modern art. There are lots of family photographs of her and her late husband, Marty – the love of her life – as well as of her children and of her grandchildren. We see her many judicial robes and her collection of "dissent" collars. It is a wide-ranging space. We also learn about the collegiality Justice Ginsburg shares among the other eight Supreme Court Justices, regardless of their liberal or conservative leanings. For all of their differences, she was actually best of friends with the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.

"Men and women are persons of equal dignity and they should count equally. The point is that the discriminatory line almost inevitably hurts women."

In RBG, we learn about Justice Ginsburg's intellectual curiosity. Born in the 1930s, she was the first in her family to go to college, and was one of nine women among a Harvard Law School class of more than 500. We understand the important place she holds in judicial history in fighting for gender equality. As a young litigator, she took six gender discrimination cases to the Supreme Court – and won five of them.

"I did see myself as kind of a kindergarten teacher in these days because the judges didn't think sex discrimination existed."

Then, on August 10, 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the second female to sit on the nation's highest court. Talk about a legacy! She is a center of power on and off the court. Outside of the Supreme Court, we witness Justice Ginsburg's love of opera and the arts – and talking to groups of young school students – as something that rejuvenates her. We also see up close her regular gym workouts, doing planks and push-ups, that show how she's proud of keeping herself in shape to do the job of Supreme Court Justice.

One critic labeled RBG a love story, a history lesson, a comedy, a profile in courage. The Washington Post wrote: "She's created a whole new way for the public to look at a Supreme Court Justice."

"I surely wouldn't be in this room today without the determined efforts of men and women who kept dreams alive."

RBG is an excellent, inspiring and important film that – hopefully – will inspire generations of women to pursue law and justice. It's also an important historical document. We are reminded of Justice Ginsburg's commitment to creating a more equitable society for all people.

After all, you can't spell "truth" without Ruth.

Beyond black and white: searching for a new equality

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar / A great American thinker.

Growing up in the valley suburbs of Los Angeles in the 1960s, one of my childhood heroes was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Back then, as Lew Alcindor (his birth name before he changed it after converting to Islam), he was the dominating force in men's collegiate basketball in leading UCLA to three consecutive NCAA championships. I've always been fascinated by Kareem, not only as an athlete but as a human being because he's shown himself to be so much more than a basketball player. He's also a great American thinker.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's new book
focuses on many paramount issues
facing our society, including:
racism, war, death, love, hope

My current reading project is Abdul-Jabbar's latest book, Writings On the Wall: Searching For a New Equality Beyond Black and White. Co-authored with Raymond Obstfeld and published this fall, it's an insightful book that's full of wisdom and conviction and a must read as we transition from eight years of steady and thoughtful leadership by Barack Obama to the chaos-induced "post-truth" presidency of Donald Trump. In Writings On the Wall, Abdul-Jabbar explores how today's America "is a fractured society, sharply divided along the lines of race, gender, religion, political party and economic class." The book is filled with plenty of fresh reporting and serious thinking.

Writings On the Wall focuses on many paramount issues facing our society: racism, abuse of women, why politicians attack the media, war, growing old, death, love, hope. He approaches these issues with both insight and passion and draws upon his life experiences not only as superstar athlete but also as a scholar, celebrity, parent, education advocate, journalist, charity organizer, African-American and a Muslim.

U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, himself a former NBA basketball player, Rhodes Scholar and author, wrote that Abdul-Jabbar "brings his unusual and unique life story to bear on the issues of our day and adds insight for all of us in the process."

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar used his trademark
"sky hook" shot to help win six NBA
championships during his 20-year
Hall of Fame career. 

Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA's all-time leading scorer and a Basketball Hall of Fame inductee. In retirement, he has been an activist and an in-demand speaker, a basketball coach and the author of nine books for adults and three for children, including What Color Is My World?, which garnered the author the NAACP Image Award for Best Children's Book.

As an essayist for such publications as the Washington Post and TIME magazine, Abdul-Jabbar has written on a wide range of subjects, including race, politics, aging and popular culture.

In 2012, he was selected as a U.S. Cultural Ambassador. Last month, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a White House ceremony.

"My real passion for history is in using it as a critical guide to our future, both personal and cultural," writes Abdul-Jabbar.

"History illuminates the safest path in front of us by revealing the pitfalls of the past. It is a secular bible of cautionary and inspiring stories that distills the wisdom of thousands of years of human endeavor into practical lessons about humanity's morals, politics and personal relationships. It is the ultimate self-help book. And right now, given the political and social turmoil in America, we need all the help we can get."

Abdul-Jabbar integrates a lot of popular-culture references in illustrating his ideas. He's a fan of the many artistic ways that our society chooses to communicate both its darkest fears and its brightest hopes. "Pop culture visualizes the public discourse in myriad ways: through music, movies, TV shows, poetry, comic books, literary novels, plays, YouTube, graffiti and new forms of expression that come along every day," he writes. "It provides the embraceable melody of our cultural song – it doesn't matter how profound the words of the song are if no one wants to listen. Whether Tarantino or Truffaut, all points of view and creative presentations have a place. Popular culture is a language that bridges generations, economic statuses and ethnic backgrounds. It provides a common heritage-in-the-making that brings our diverse community closer."

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spoke during the 2016
Democratic National Convention.

Why did he write this book? "For me, there would be no point in writing a book like this unless I had some hope that it might help improve life for Americans," writes Abdul-Jabbar. "I don't imagine anything grand, just that some contentious issues might be clarified, that some people might hear a reasonable voice that isn't from the same background as others they listen to.

"Maybe they will become a little more understanding. Mostly, I hope to expand the discussion about what America is and what it means to be an American. Not with waving flags and sentimental speeches but with a return to exploring the document that defines who we are and what we stand for: the U.S. Constitution."

With his book, Writings on the Wall, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
hopes "to shine a flashlight on the path back to the
Age of Reason and the ideals of the U.S. Constitution."

What does he hope to gain? "Many Americans, as evidenced by the 2016 presidential campaign, abandoned these founding principles of reason to voice their fear, anger, frustration and rage. They openly and proudly expressed their racial bigotry, religious intolerance and misogyny as if the past 100 years of history of incremental social progress had never happened.

"Without even knowing it, they have dragged the American flag through the mud by rejecting all the principles it represents. As cartoonist Walt Kelly said in Pogo: 'We have met the enemy and he is us.' With this book, I hope to shine a flashlight on the path back to the Age of Reason and the ideals of the U.S. Constitution."

Will it work? Abdul-Jabbar is hopeful. "Each generation has to confront these challenging ideas and find ways to incorporate them into their personal belief systems as they go about their daily lives. ... I hope people choose to answer the call and together we ring about the miracle and wonder."

That, I believe, is an American dream worth dreaming.

Remembering Mabida: He was a universal symbol of tolerance and hope

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." — Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013.

We were all saddened by the news of the passing of Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president and an icon of peaceful resistance.

Mr. Mandela died at his home in the Johannesburg suburb of Houghton on Thursday night at age 95. News of his death spread quickly around the world through cable news networks like CNN, in social media such as Facebook and via the internet, and in the days since, there's been no shortage or tumult of remembrances. Mr. Mandela has been memorialized as an icon, a radical, a leader and a luminary.

Beloved by all, Mr. Mandela was a universal symbol of tolerance and hope, a man of great heart and compassion. Following his release prison after 27 years of incarceration, Mr. Mandela led South Africa through emancipation from white minority rule and he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

"Mr. Mandela's quest for freedom took him from the court of tribal royalty to the liberation underground to a prison rock quarry to the presidential suite of Africa's richest country," wrote The New York Times. "And then, when his first term of office was up, unlike so many of the successful revolutionaries he regarded as kindred spirits, he declined a second term and cheerfully handed over power to an elected successor, the country still gnawed by crime, poverty, corruption and disease but a democracy, respected in the word and remarkably at peace."

In announcing Mr. Mandela's death to an entire nation, President Jacob Zuma of South Africa said: "Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father. His tireless struggle for freedom earned him the respect of the world. His humility, his compassion and his humanity earned him their love." 

Regardless of our race, nationality or country of residence, Mr. Mandela will be remembered by many as the "world's kindly white-haired grandfather." His last public appearance was in 2010, when South Africa hosted football's World Cup.

World leaders across several continents were united in their praise of Mr. Mandela and their tributes were filled with superlatives.

• "A giant among men has passed away. This is as much India's loss as South Africa's." — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, India.

• "A great light has gone out in the world. Nelson Mandela was a hero of our time." — Prime Minister David Cameron, Britain.

• "All of Canada mourns with the family of Nelson Mandela and the citizens of South Africa. The world has lost one of its great moral leaders." — Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

• "Today we say goodbye to a man who brought hope, a true hero who will continue to inspire us." — Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, Belgium.

Here in the U.S., President Barack Obama reflected on Mr. Mandela's life by praising him as a man of courage and compassion. "Let us pause and give thanks for the fact that Nelson Mandela lived — a man who took history in his hands and bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice."

And, former U.S. President Bill Clinton noted that history will remember Mr. Mandela as a champion for human dignity and freedom, for peace and reconciliation. "All of us are living in a better world because of the life Madiba lived. He proved that there is a freedom in forgiving, that a big heart is better than a closed mind, and that life's real victories must be shared."

To have an understanding of Mr. Mandela's religious, spiritual and humanist worldview, one need only look to his 1994 autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, which profiled his early life, coming of age, education and 27 years in prison.

"The story told by Mandela's life is not one of infallible human beings and inevitable triumph. It is the story of a man who was willing to risk his own life for what he believed in, and who worked hard to lead the kind of life that would make the world a better place," said Mr. Obama.

Mr. Mandela was also praised by leaders of the religious community, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who like Mr. Mandela was a Nobel laureate and a towering figure in South Africa's struggle against apartheid. He said that Mr. Mandela "embodied our hopes and dreams, symbolized our enormous potential."

At the Vatican, Pope Francis praised "the steadfast commitment shown by Nelson Mandela in promoting the human dignity of all the nation's citizens."

In San Francisco, the Very Rev. Dr. Jane Shaw, Dean of Grace Cathedral, said that "it is appropriate to take a moment to thank God for his example and the profound influence for peace he life has had. ... We celebrate his life and will continue in his example to fight against institutionalized racism, poverty and inequality."

Praise also came from the streets from fellow South African citizens like Shadrack Motau, who accompanied Mr. Mandela on a tour of his Soweto neighborhood after his release from prison. He told The New York Times: "The man had so much humility. He treated everyone with respect and dignity, from statesmen to children."

By all accounts, Mr. Mandela loved being in the company of children. He spoke often of the importance that education played with shaping the world's youth. "Young people must take it upon themselves to ensure that they receive the highest education possible so that they can represent us well in the future as future leaders."

Those old enough to remember the struggle against apartheid have flocked for days to Mr. Mandela's home to pay tribute to South Africa's departed leader through means of joyful noise. 

"We should, while mourning, also sing at the top of our voices, dance and do whatever we want to do, to celebrate the life of this outstanding revolutionary who kept the spirit of freedom alive and led us to a new society," South African president Zuma said in a statement over the weekend. "As South Africans, we sing when we are happy, and we also sing when we are sad to make ourselves feel better. 

"Let us celebrate Madiba in this way, which we know best," Mr. Zuma added, referring to Mr. Mandela by his widely used clan name. "Let us sing for Madiba."

On Tuesday, in rain-soaked Soweto township, President Obama, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and some of Mandela's grandchildren were among those who spoke during a four-hour memorial service honoring Mr. Mandela, held in the 95,000-capacity FNB Stadium (built for the 2010 World Cup) and attended by more than 100 heads of state and other dignitaries and celebrities. 

"It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailer as well; to show that you must trust others so that they may trust you; to teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion and generosity and truth," Mr. Obama said in a stirring eulogy. "He changed laws, but he also changed hearts."

Worth reading for its comprehensive look at the life of Mr. Mandela is the 6,500-word obit which appeared in The New York Times on Friday. It was written by the paper's former executive editor Bill Keller, who in the 1990s was its Johannesburg bureau chief. The obit was eight years in the making and it included comments from a 2007 interview Keller conducted with Mr. Mandela.

Across a wide spectrum, many have shared their thoughts about Mr. Mandela's passing. Here are a few worth sharing:

• The Rev. Al Sharpton shared the sentiment of many, not only in my country but throughout the world, when he commented on MSNBC in the first hour after the announcement of Mr. Mandela's death: "We've lost one of the world's great citizens." 

• Muhammad Ali, generally considered among the greatest heavyweight boxers in the world — a sport which Mr. Mandela participated in his youth — said in a statement: "He taught us forgiveness on a grand scale. His was a spirit born free, destined to soar above the rainbows. Today his spirit is soaring through the heavens. He is now forever free."

• The American poet Maya Angelou, who unveiled a tribute poem to Mr. Mandela, shared her thoughts about his impact on the world with CBS News, saying: "He showed us how liberating it is to forgive."

• CNN's Christiane Amanpour, who is no stranger to reporting about world leaders, put things into perspective when she said: "Nelson Mandela was the towering moral giant of the 20th and 21st centuries. We will not see the likes of Madiba again for a long, long time."

• Finally, Kofi Annan, who is the chair of The Elders and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation and from 1997-2006 served as the secretary-general of the United Nations, wrote in a Financial Times commentary: "Almost 20 years ago, Mandela said South Africa had come as far as it had on the path to peace and democracy only because the world had set his country 'a moral example which we had dared to follow.' As we mourn his passing and honour his memory, the task for leaders and citizens alike is to dare to follow his example — in every corner of Africa and across the world."

Photograph of Nelson Mandela courtesy of Google Images, 2013.

Curt Flood: An every day reminder of one of America's past baseball heroes

Beyond boundaries / Outside Curt Flood Field in Oakland, Calif.

As the Major League baseball pennant races heat up across the country, here in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Giants have gone from first to worst while the Oakland A's of Moneyball fame continue to fight for survival, remaining at or near the top of their division, while playing in what one local sports columnist labeled the Oakland Coliseum as "the greatest terrible place on Earth."

While San Francisco has played center stage to many of baseball's greatest stars -- Willie Mays, and Willie McCovey of the Giants come to mind -- as well as one of the game's biggest anti-heroes, Barry Bonds, across the Bay in Oakland, most of its greatest home-grown talent like Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson and Willie Stargell have earned their accolades elsewhere.

Then, there's Curt Flood, a Major League baseball player, who spent much of his career as a center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Curt Flood / Won seven consecutive Gold Gloves
for the St. Louis Cardinals between 1963-69.

Born in Texas but raised in Oakland, Flood played in the same outfield as Robinson and Pinson at West Oakland's McClymonds High School. Each became a major leaguer with the Cincinnati Reds in the mid-1950s. After two seasons, Flood was traded by the Reds to the Cardinals in December 1957. For the next twelve seasons, Flood became a defensive fixture for the Cardinals, winning seven consecutive Gold Gloves, making three All-Star teams, and winning two World Series titles. In 1969, he collected the first hit in a major league regular season game in Canada. During his career, Flood hit .293, knocked out 1,861 hits and drove in 631 runs.

However, despite his outstanding career on the field, it was outside the lines that Flood developed his principal legacy to the Summer Game. Flood became a pivotal figure in the labor history of baseball when he refused to accept a trade to the Philadelphia Phillies following the 1969 season, and he ultimately appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Flood believed that the decades-old reserve clause that Major League Baseball employed was unfair because it "kept players beholden for life to the team with which they originally signed, even when they had satisfied the terms and conditions of those contracts."

Flood's rebellion against the baseball establishment came at a period of time when the U.S. was coming apart at the seams. We were at war in Southeast Asia, marching for civil rights through the South, and dealing with the tragedy of the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. As a country, we were losing great Americans who were dying for the rights of others.

Curt Flood refused a trade to the
Phillies after the 1969 season.

In his 1971 autobiography, The Way It Is, written with Richard Carter, Flood cited the Phillies' poor record and dilapidated Connie Mack Stadium, and for what he believed were "belligerent -- and, racist -- fans" as reasons for refusing to report to his new team. He forfeited a $100,000 contract for the season and, instead, chose to pursue his legal options with the blessing of the the players' union head Marvin Miller and the union's funding.

In a December 24, 1969 letter addressed to Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Flood demanded the commissioner declare him a free agent. He wrote:

After twelve years in the major leagues, I do not feel I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes. I believe that any system which produces that result violates my basic rights as a citizen and is inconsistent with the laws of the United States and of the several States.

"It is my desire to play baseball in 1970, and I am capable of playing. I have received a contract offer from the Philadelphia club, but I believe I have the right to consider offers from other clubs before making any decision. I, therefore, request that you make known to all Major League clubs my feelings in this matter, and advise them of my availability for the 1970 season.

No doubt, Flood was influenced by the civil rights events of the 1960s taking place throughout the United States. In Miller's 1991 book A Whole Different Ball Game: The Sport and Business of Baseball, the union head recalled that in a meeting with the executive board of the players' union, Flood said: "I think the change in black consciousness in recent years has made me more sensitive to injustice in every area of my life."

Flood v. Kuhn (U.S. 258) was argued before the Supreme Court on March 20, 1972. Former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, Flood's attorney, argued that the reserve clause depressed wages and limited players to one team for life. Meanwhile, the counsel representing Major League Baseball countered that the commissioner had acted "for the good of the game."

On June 19, 1972, the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 with one recusal in favor of Major League Baseball, invoking the principle of stare decisis ("to stand by things decided"). It cited as precedent  a 1922 ruling in Federal Baseball Club v. National League (259 U.S. 200).

While Flood's legal challenge was ultimately unsuccessful, it united major league baseball players in solidarity as they fought against baseball's reserve clause and sought free agency.

Curt Flood / "Left a legacy of fairness."

Flood sat out the 1970 season and returned briefly in the next year and played in 13 games for the Washington Senators, who acquired him from the Phillies and signed him to a $110,000 contract. He hit only .200 and his defensive skills showed deterioration. He retired after the 1971 season. Four years later, baseball's reserve clause was nullified by an arbitrator and it paved the way for free agency.

On January 20, 1997, Flood died of pneumonia from complications due to throat cancer. Later that same year, Flood's legacy was acknowledged in Congress through the Baseball Fans and Communities Protection Act of 1997. It was numbered HR21 (Flood's Cardinals uniform number) and was introduced in the House of Representatives on the first day of the 105th Congress. The legislation established federal antitrust law protection for major league baseball players to the same extent as provided for other professional athletes. The Curt Flood Act of 1998, which was similar to the House's legislation, was introduced in the Senate and enacted into law the following year.

Flood, who San Francisco Chronicle baseball writer Henry Schulman once wrote "left a legacy of fairness," has been described by many as "pioneer, hero, legend, and freedom fighter -- a sort of all-star in the world at large."

In the book Reconstructing Fame: Sport, Race, and Evolving Reputations, David J. Leonard writes about Flood: "The man who was daily denounced and virtually banished from America has since been compared to Dred Scott, Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks as a great American." In the same book, Leonard quotes journalist George F. Will, who said of Flood's contribution to baseball: "Few have ever matched the grace and craftsmanship Curt Flood brought to it as a player. However, none have matched what he did for the game as a citizen. ... He once said, 'I am pleased that God made my skin black, but I wish He had made it thicker.' Friends of baseball, and of freedom, are pleased that he didn't."

A welcome sign to Curt Flood Field
in Oakland, Calif.

In paying tribute to Flood, the city of Oakland renamed a baseball and athletic field in his honor several years ago, Curt Flood Field, that is a little more than a mile from my home. I've driven by it numerous times. Most of the time, I've noticed, the baseball field lies empty and it looks a bit tired and worn. A local high school baseball team and other youth sports groups use the facility that is located at the well-travelled intersection of Coolidge Avenue and School Street in a mixed-race urban neighborhood.

Sometimes, I wonder, if you were to ask most of the kids who play on the field about who Curt Flood was or what he did for them and the Summer Game, would you get more than just a blank stare?

Photos of Curt Flood Field by Michael Dickens, copyright 2013.
Photos of Curt Flood courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.