Ko-Be or Not Ko-Be... That is the Question

Before my current writing life, there was The Hilltop, Howard University’s and the Nation’s Oldest Black Collegiate Newspaper, where many of the questions and themes I still explore first found their voice. What follows are my early published works, preserved in their original form.

From The Hilltop Archives

Originally published in The Hilltop, Howard University — October 10th, 2003

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Ko-Be or Not Ko-Be... That is the Question

Warning: 

The following views, opinions and beliefs in this column are those of Poet and don't reflect that of the Hilltop and its staff. 

You've been warned.

Since when have athletes been role models.

I mean, I still awe in amazement at the things this generation can do, like skip college (makes you want to be an athlete and miss this great Howard experience).

But to this day the one person I have and always will idolize is my mother, mainly for putting up with me.

I still remember watching the Charles Barkley Nike Ad "Role Model" wishing more athletes thought like him. Maybe it's time to re-air that commercial daily because we're in trouble.

The community that once raised a child was simplified to a single mother just surviving. And now, with the corrupted economy and parents forced to work inhumane hours, we have the best sitter money can buy, cable.

Now Sports center is more than an outlet for sports junkies, it's one of the few educational programs left on TV.

On Sunday, they aired a segment on children, no older than nine, and their reaction to what was happening to Kobe.

The knowledge that these kids had about race, sex and relationships is more than I knew when I was nine.

I am not that old, but I do remember when a "race issue" was who was the fastest and the only thing I was afraid to catch from girls was cooties.

Boy how times have changed. 

These kids are growing up too fast. Parents are children themselves and the only time they spend together is an hour or two before bedtime. Hell, when's the last time a dinner was eaten at the table without the distraction of television, video games or internet. 

These kids didn't know the details of the Bryant case. But they knew enough to say that Kobe was with a woman other than his wife and he was touching her in places she didn't want to be touched.

And they want to air the case on Court TV, exposing these innocence minds to the evils of this society. 

Either parents need to once again be the only ones our youth looks up to or we need to tighten the restrictions on what the Federal Communications C ommission airs. 

How about doing them both. 

The Parents Television Council tried, but the FCC has condoned the using of the F-word on television (front page article). 

And Kobe, the idol of children everywhere, with a daughter of his own, publicly admitted to committing adultery. Forget felony sexual assault, he committed adultery, appeared a few weeks later at Fox's 

"Teen Choice Awards."

And here's the kicker...

He recently got inked up, yeah a tat with his wife's name and under it Psalms 27. He said he just wants to do God's work.

What we have here is a failure to communicate; the explosion of reality TV, the ever present selling of women as sex objects and cursing. 

What's next, that son of a Bush gets reelected...wait, that's not funny.