The following is an editorial by Jim Nimmo
(Posted 4-24-02)

Dear Editor:

Mr. John Rocker, late of the Atlanta Braves, has been, I have read, slipping in his baseball skills and has been demoted to the Oklahoma RedHawks.

I believe Mr. Rocker was to have received sensitivity training as part of the fine levied by the baseball commissioner as punishment at the time of Mr. Rocker's unfortunate choice of words during an interview for Sports Illustrated wherein he stated his disgust, when he used public transportation, at rubbing elbows with gays having HIV/AIDS, pregnant unwed mothers, Jews, and other assorted minorities, which he described with the usual vocabulary of a street thug.

I think Mr. Rocker, if he chooses to play this season in the RedHawks, should be invited to become an honorary member of the progressive, gay-lesbian, and other minority groups we have here in OKC, such as but not limited to OGLPC, NAACP, Herland, Women of Color, Cimmaron Alliance, B'nai Brith Temple, Mayflower Church, Church of the Open Arms, and Stonewall Democrats in order that he can exercise his sensitivity training and demonstrate to the country how he has become aware of the feelings of minorities, as there are others who, as Mr. Rocker used to be, in need of a sporty, cool, straight man to serve as a role model - by that I mean an example of how diversity training can open a whole new experience of what it means to be a citizen in the modern world, a world free of ignorance compounded by superstition.

He could add a new aspect to rebuilding his career as a baseball pitcher by being a poster-jock for the equality/progressive movement right here in Oklahoma City.

Hmmm, he's a pitcher. So, I guess that means he doesn't catch?

James Nimmo