99XWatch.org

The Case of the Disappearing Posts

You might have noticed some non-99X posts disappearing after several hours.  This is largely a result of the fact that I haven't gotten the hang of having two blogs.  Observant readers may have noticed the feed, but if you're interested in finding these disappearing posts, check out JimV.com

Happy Fourth of July

If there is a heaven, Edward R. Murrow is in it taking a puff on a cigarette and smiling proudly.

Weekend, Non-99X Blog

There's a great story in today's New York Times about the triumph the human spirit over adversity, set in Clarkston, Georgia. 

CLARKSTON, Ga., Jan. 20 — Early last summer the mayor of this small town east of Atlanta issued a decree: no more soccer in the town park.

“There will be nothing but baseball and football down there as long as I am mayor,” Lee Swaney, a retired owner of a heating and air-conditioning business, told the local paper. “Those fields weren’t made for soccer.”

In Clarkston, soccer means something different than in most places. As many as half the residents are refugees from war-torn countries around the world. Placed by resettlement agencies in a once mostly white town, they receive 90 days of assistance from the government and then are left to fend for themselves. Soccer is their game.

But to many longtime residents, soccer is a sign of unwanted change, as unfamiliar and threatening as the hijabs worn by the Muslim women in town. It’s not football. It’s not baseball. The fields weren’t made for it. Mayor Swaney even has a name for the sort of folks who play the game: the soccer people.

Caught in the middle is a boys soccer program called the Fugees — short for refugees, though most opponents guess the name refers to the hip-hop band.

The story isn't about how Southerners suck,  It's about a group of kids, refugees from unimaginably bleak circumstances, finding normalcy, even excellence through sports, despite the obstacles put in their path by some.

You can learn more on the Fugees Family soccer team website.