EL BARRIO, EL FALLS – Good Morning! Since I’m living in the greater Buffalo area, the events of Saturday have made it hard to say Happy Monday. Without much any further chat or any segue, here is what I will talk about today: #Eastside Buffalo Pride, NY Rangers Win Game 7, NBA Playoff Upsets.
East Side Buffalo Pride
The people really responsible for the murder will walk away. The people that supported him on the dark web, the “friends” that made Buffalo the place to go, his parents who ignored him and introduced him to racist ideas with their words, deeds, politics and news watching. The news channel and websites that pushed racism and xenophobia for profit. The politicians that push fear and white ethnocentrism for votes and power. The Gun Lobby that encouraged less regulation and whomever helped him get them.
One of my handymen friends knew one of the victims. I have sold houses in the area. It is the part of Buffalo that has been black since the Great White Flight to the suburbs. Despite an influx of immigrants to the area, the East Side is still predominantly black. People will say Buffalo strong but the majority of them have avoided the East Side with great determination. The East Side has remained strong, though, and there is pride in the community and that area.
Stopping this stuff can’t be accomplished by victim’s relatives. It has to the people that look like the relatives of the terrorist (this was a terrorist act, don’t be mistaken because he was white). By that I mean the people that disagree with white supremacy ideology can no longer say, “Well its Meema’s birthday, its Thanksgiving, Christmas or some other family get-together, so I will ignore the rants of crazy cousin Doug or Uncle Gary.” Many of these radical notions were forced underground before by good people, they once again have to be banished.
Okay. Now on to sports…
NY Rangers Win Game 7
Never say die! Rangers… is one moniker the NY Rangers have picked up in these playoffs. I will allow it because they really won’t stay down. They lost game 1 in triple overtime, lost games 3 and 4 in Pittsburgh – so badly their star player and goalkeeper – Igor Shesterkin – had to be pulled as he was playing that bad. With the team facing elimination in Game 5 in NY, they fought back from being down in that game to force game 6. Most thought that they would go down in Game 6 in Pittsburgh but they again fought their way back to win to force game 7 in New York. Having to dig so deep they couldn’t do it again, could they? Well, yes. They could and did. The Blueshirts fought and battled and despite being down a goal going into the 3rd period, they scored the game-tying goal with just under 6 minutes to play and forced overtime. In O.T. The Breadman, Artemi Panarin, scored at 4:46 in overtime. Now they face the well-rested former Hartford Whalers, the Carolina Hurricanes. It will be so interesting.
NBA Playoff Upsets
The Pheonix Suns have one of the best young coaches in the game… and roster, too. The Dallas Mavericks have one all-world player, Luka Doncic, and a bunch of good but not great players. It seemed like the Suns were destined to reach the Western Final, however, that was not meant to be. Doncic absolutely dominated in game 7 and the Suns shots wouldn’t fall, leading to a blowout win for the Mavericks… After Game 1 between Milwaukee and Boston, it looked like Boston was gonna be in trouble as they couldn’t stop Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Celtics never did figure out how to stop him. What they did do was shutdown the rest of the Bucks. They managed to do that to great effect in Game 7 and won the game running away.
Thanks for reading, feel free to comment below. Come back tomorrow for our Ben Whitney, who watched the Ranger game live so probably has lost his voice.
