We Should Never Give Up the Quest for Setting Brittney Free

by Ernie McCray

Brittney Grinder.
WNBA superstar.
Sits in a Russian lockup far
from where she displays
her hoops wizardry
on the court with the Phoenix Mercury,
and to her predicament her coach says
“If this was LeBron James
he’d be home, right?”
to which I say
“Not likely,”
not with all that’s going on
in these moments in time,
a war of a kind,
between two arch enemies,
the US and the former USSR,
known for always wanting to “one up”
each other in some way
and Russia
with a “brotha” in jail
for possession of hashish oil,
an action not according to Hoyle
in their society,
has quite a hand to play.
But I hear what Coach is trying to say.
Loudly.
As she’s speaking to
the glaring disparities
in salary and prestige
and commercial opportunities
that exist between men and women
professional athletes,
and, indeed,
that gap needs to narrow in size
but right now we have to focus our eyes
on seeing that BG is set free,
in the main way we can
by keeping the pressure on the president
and the State Department
to make her return home
a top priority,
while, at the same time,
keeping her spirit alive,
celebrating her anti-bullying activism
and how she’s defended LGBTQ human beings’
rights and dignity
and supporting what
she and other players in the WNBA
have been doing in the way of
social justice advocacy
in a country
that has fought against such
eternally.

She’s a remarkable woman
needed by us
and we should
Never give up
the quest
to set her free.