response 2 of 13:

Apr 13 03:52 UTC 2002

Okay, now that I've put down the "real" #0 in resp 1, let me finish:

Jim Brown is a fascinating person.  He was, at one time, the dominant American
professional athlete, and many still consider him to be the greatest football
player that every lived.  He retired at the peak of his career to take up
acting, and has since gone on to devote endless time to public service.  In
particular, he has done considerable work in prisons and with gangs to turn
around the lives of many African American youths, and he is a strong supporter
(and executor) of economic and educational improvements within the black
community.

He is also a man of contradictions, having been accussed of domestic issues
on multiple occasions, including one which led to his most recent arrest (if
people are interested, I can post the details as paraphrased from the SI
article's exposition).  It's worth noting that he spends most of his time
talking about men in the article, though never to specify them separately from
women.  

He has very interesting comments on black athletes (whom he feels focus too
much on money, and not nearly enough on making fundamental community changes),
the focus of young African Americans on succeeding in sports as opposed to
education, Martin Luther King Jr (I'll let you read that one for yourselves),
and his own situation.  I don't agree with everything Brown says by any
stretch, but I've alwasy respected the way he presents his views and tries
to live out his specific calls for action.  And with his unfortunate anger
management and violence problems, he is full of contradictions that make
useful speculation.

Even with a number of critical comments, what impresses me most is that his
general tone appears to be "I don't really think these <people, things,
attitudes> are bad, but we could be doing a lot better. "  

response 4 of 13:

Apr 13 04:49 UTC 2002

Jim Brown played his college football at Syracuse.  Spike Lee was on 
campus last year to film for his documentary.  Sadly, that's about the 
extent of my knowledge on the Jim Brown/Syracuse connection.  I suppose 
I should probably try to see the documentary, and lookup some of the old 
history.

response 6 of 13:

Apr 13 13:53 UTC 2002

Re #3: "read noforget".

Fascinating article, and I agree with this guy 100%.  Unfortunately
for his cause, it's not going to attract any popular exponents because
it doesn't add to their power and authority.  You're not going to see
Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton talking sense like Brown.  What a pity.

response 8 of 13:

Apr 13 16:59 UTC 2002

I really like what he has to say about education.  He mentions the success
of the Jewish and Korean communities, attributing it not to some racial issue
but to "local" leadership and strong values.  

He also eats around the edges of a related problem in the African American
community, the reliance on sports (prominently basketball) as a path of
success.  I'll have to give more time to that later.  

response 10 of 13:

Apr 14 02:00 UTC 2002

Where do you see that anger and frustration, out of curiosity (and desire to
fuel discussion)?

Not that I disagree, necessarily.  We know and he admits problems with anger
in other areas of his life, and I think that is pretty obvious in places. 
His style of play was a bit... nasty, though hardly unethical or unusual in
the NFL at the time he played.  It's alleged to help him be a better player,
but I wasn't there at the time to verify this.

He's venting in a productive manner, in my opinion.  He's trying to take
productive paths to solve the problem, rather than complain about who's
responsible for the problem.  It is a natural human reaction to revert to
complaining about the way things are without trying to change them or cope
with them, I think, and it takes effort to move beyond that.  That's the best
explanation I can think of for why so many people just complain about their
lot in life rather than work to improve it. :)  

response 12 of 13:

Apr 14 22:42 UTC 2002

(Ah.  I was at the "Respond or pass" prompt, you were at the "Ok"
prompt.  So near and yet so far...)