Letter to LeBron

Dear LeBron,

First things first, I think you’re one hell of a basketball player. I thought last year that you had the opportunity to win seven championships before your career was over.

It’s still possible.

I was never a LeBron hater. I think people like to pick on you for the hell of it. I do however have something to say to you. I think you’re wrong when it comes to players expressing their political opinions, and here is why.

When we fans go to a sporting event or view one on television, it is to get away from the real world. We don’t need our consciousness raised; we don’t need to be educated. We already live in a world of shit.

To tell you the truth, it’s you players who need your consciousness raised. Flying in your personal jets, living in your million dollar mansions, driving your Lamborghinis, hanging out with Bono, Beyonce and Jay-Z, it’s you players who live in a fantasy world, not us.

We don’t need to be educated about anything.

The husband who watches the NFL or the NBA doesn’t need to learn about breast cancer awareness.  His wife had it; he flipped on the tube for a couple of hours to get away from the pain of his wife’s death.

The mom who watches you play doesn’t need to learn about poverty and equality; she lives it.  She flipped on the tube to anesthetize herself from reality for a few hours.  She’s beat because she’s working two jobs.

That’s your job, LeBron, whether anyone told you or not, to transport people away from reality for a few hours to a nicer place.

You talking about equality and other social issues only brings it back.

Which is why people are tuning out. They don’t want their consciousness raised.

As a pediatrician, I see malady every day of the week. I see all the results of the dumb decisions that our politicians have made over the past fifty years.

I see depression.  I see drug abuse.  I see child abuse.

So has every other physician in United States. So have all the nurses. So have all the teachers. So have all the cops. So have all the pastors. So have all the social workers.  So have all the judges.  So have many, many other people.

We live in a world of shit.

You are the anesthesia.

You are the remedy.

You are the savior.

I know it’s tough in this crazy world to just do your job.  Everyone feels as if their job isn’t quite enough, but it is.

It’s a frustrating world out there, but you can make it better for everyone by being the best basketball player you can be.

By dropping the political discourse, you will make the world a better place.

After JFK was shot on November 22. 1963, people of all walks of life felt great pain.

People were at a loss for what to do.

A great injustice had been committed, the effects of which we still feel today.

The great conductor, Leonard Bernstein, felt such pain and bewilderment.  He too struggled with what to do.  I’m sure he romanced the idea of going into politics, cleaning out Washington DC, perhaps even taking names and kicking ass.

But he didn’t.  Here is what he said in a written note:

“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly, than ever before.”

That sounds like good advice to me.

Good luck this season with your new team.  I’ll be rooting for you.