Outlive them all

“I’m black and you’re a Jew. How do you intend to make it in this town?” — Bill Russell to Red Auerbach c. 1956

“I’ll outlive them all,” the legendary Boston Celtics coach replied.

Good advice both in the concrete and the abstract.

Boston is still flamingly racist. As is the small town called Nevada. Beantown and Mississippi West have just gotten good at euphemism, winks and nods.

For a peek underneath the PR mask, read John L. Smith’s splendid biography of the greatest public servant I’ve known in my 53 years in these parts.

“The Westside Slugger: Joe Neal’s Lifelong Fight for Social Justice” will shiver your timbers. (University of Nevada Press 2019, cover photo by former Tribune photo editor Debra Reid from the Barbwire archives)

In my autographed copy, Smith termed me the Westside Slugger’s corner man. High praise indeed.

My friend Sen. Neal, D-North Las Vegas, died on New Year’s Eve 2019 at 85. Last Thursday would have been his 87th birthday. On Sunday came news that Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols and basketball great Bill Russell had likewise graduated to greater glory.

All infused our lives with one great lesson. All that will outlive you is what you achieve. In accomplishments large and small lie the seeds of greatness.

“One life affects so many others,” Clarence the guardian angel informs a despondent George Bailey in Frank Capra’s classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

The Beatles closed the circle: “In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” (Somebody play that song for Czar Putin. Please.)

Ancient Egyptian mythology held that all would be judged by a simple standard. Your heart would be placed on one side of a scale with a feather on the other. If the feather outweighed your heart, woe unto thee.

I’m a Trekkie but I didn’t know until she died that Nichols shared TV’s first ebony and ivory kiss with Captain Kirk in a 1966 episode. No big deal by today’s standards. Back then, pushing the envelope could get you canceled.

Powerful singer Leslie Uggams broke new ground as the only African American on Mitch Miller’s popular weekly musical TV program. (NBC 1961-64) She could never interact on camera with the otherwise all-white cast.

“If I did, the southern stations wouldn’t run it,” she once recalled.

I remember how different it felt when black actors were finally allowed to appear on TV commercials in 1971. I cast a black actress on a local Subaru commercial a few years later.

Ms. Nichols was self effacing about her Star Trek stardom. “I played the receptionist,” Lt. Uhura once quipped.

We remain so tribal. War and violence are the norm rather than the exception worldwide. I have little faith in my fellow men. My only hopeful solution is long range: Women need to become the majority in power in all walks of life.

Speaking of which, three female political leaders will be feted at a Washoe Democrats dinner August 26 at the Grand Sierra. Former Sparks Councilmember and State Senator Julia Ratti will be honored along with former Miss Nevada and term-limited Assembly Majority Leader Theresa Benitez Thompson and likewise timed out County Commissioner Kitty Jung.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto will deliver the keynote address. Info at WashoeDems.org/

Those outstanding leaders and the two late superstars have received well deserved praise. Accordingly, I offer a belated birthday present to Sen. Neal.

Most norte Nevadians don’t know that he was a longtime columnist for the Las Vegas Sentinel, a publication oriented toward southern Nevada minorities. Biographer Smith notes that Neal’s commentary for many years was the lone liberal voice in Gomorrah South media.

The good senator already stands in the Nevada State Senate Hall of Fame and the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame. So let’s make it a hat trick for the great writer and constitutional scholar.

Sen. Neal, welcome to the Barbwire Molly Ivins Memorial Columniators Hall of Flames, a giant to walk with giants.

RENTVOLUTION.ORG. The Culinary Union today will ask the North Las Vegas City Council to reverse the city clerk’s decision to bounce the union’s rent control initiative petition. Sen. Neal’s eloquence will be missed.

Stay tuned.

BACK TO THE FUTURE. Labor Day parades were once the norm in many Nevada communities. Not any more.

Northern Nevada workers will begin to remedy that on Sept. 5 with a Labor Day job fair and community picnic extravaganza at Reno’s Idlewild Park. Watch NevadaLabor.com for details from the Sparks Labor Temple.

Speaking of fervor…

THE CATHEDRAL OF FOOTBALL. Teamsters Local 533 is hosting a day with the UNR Wolf Pack at Mackay Stadium on Sept. 10. Union members can bring up to three immediate family members at $25 each which includes tailgating, food, game tickets and a souvenir t-shirt. Reservations by August 10. Union members should call (775) 348-6060 ext. 101 ASAP. First come, first served.

If you want to avoid the parking hassle, you might take an RTCRide bus from downtown to the game. Driven by a Teamsters member, of course.

For those who consider football a religious experience, this game is for you. The Wolf Pack’s opponent is the Incarnate Word Cardinals.

To borrow the late Al Maguire’s favorite term, these guys ain’t East Cupcake State. The Division 1 San Antonio Catholic school is coming off a 10-3 Southland Conference championship season.

Which begs the burning bush question: Will beer be available at the game? Yes. All the beer you can buy. But you must feel guilty while drinking it.

Stay sage and pray for Ukraine and 53 other currently war-torn lands.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.