Brittney Needs Our Love More Than Our Ridicule

This is the third in a series on Brittney Griner by Ernie. (Here’s No. 1 and No. 2)

by Ernie McCray

Seems, at times,
that our nation
has trouble loving,
caring,
as evidenced
by so many
people finding joy
in Brittney Griner’s
9-year sentence
for weed possession
in a Russian prison,

a penal system renowned

for its cruelty,

it’s “lock them up

and throw away the key” mentality,

citing, in their reasoning,

that she’s “Un-American,”

that she disrespects the flag

and the anthem,

none of which is true,

but, if it were true,

you want her in a Gulag?

For traveling with a substance in her bag

that shouldn’t draw any more attention

than if she were carrying

a package of chewing gum

or some potato chips,

Visine eye drops,

chocolates, lipstick, bean dip

or paper clips?

Can you haters call on your

human instinct

to sympathize and empathize

with sensitivity and civility,

emotions that would lead you

to, say, think about how desperate

Ms. Griner’s mom and dad

and wife and friends

must be to hold her

and wrap her long

athletic body in their arms again,

how eager her teammates and coaches

and her league

must be to have her back

with the Phoenix Mercury,

how victims of playground bullies

and the gay community

are missing how she’s spoken for them,

with the same to be said

about the homeless folks

she’s tended to

through the Heart and Sole Shoe Drive

she organized for them,

driving around, at first,

with shoes in the trunk of her car

offering them much needed

comfort for their feet.

To her detractors, I say:

your lack of support for this woman

is what’s truly Un-American

and disrespectful to the flag

and the anthem,

as they, supposedly,

are about the ties

that bind us together

as a country,

a connection that’s coming apart

like a structure

held together by loose screws.

All to say:

Brittney needs our love

more than our ridicule.