The Supreme Court released three decisions, two on Thursday and one on Friday, that were greeted with almost comical consternation by the perpetually offended. As usual, Twitter blazed with stupidity, but there were people, actual people, who acted like they had just survived a head-on collision.
At Boston University, students in its law school were so traumatized they were offered therapy after the SCOTUS opinions were released. The same was true for its medical school students. Apparently, reading words can be ruinous for the psyche of graduate students headed to jobs that will make them wealthy.
A black mother attending a soccer tournament with her son in North Carolina was asked about the affirmative action decision. She said:
They call it the Black Tax. Because you are a minority, you are looked at as less than and you have to perform better than what is considered normal. It’s scary.
That is, of course, preposterous. No rational person calls this a “black tax,” and no one looks at her son as “less than normal.”
Her son, clearly polluted with the same nonsense, said:
I’m just going to have to work that much harder than everybody else.
M aybe, but that is what every kid who wants something NEEDS to do: work hard. A young Justice Thomas wouldn’t allow people telling him he was “less than” to stop him. You have to put in the effort. Skin color shouldn’t stop or help anyone. Merit and hard work are what motivate individuals, garner attention, and inspire others to want more.
This brings us to Dennis Kusumba.
Dennis is what should be defined as a universal “role model.” He doesn’t whine about Supreme Court decisions. He doesn’t complain that he has to work hard to get where he wants to go. Dennis puts in the work. A lot of work. Hard work.
Dennis is from Gayza, Uganda. He’s just 19. He no longer has a mom and dad. Both parents were killed in the nightmare of the Ugandan civil war and random violence. Unthinkable, unspeakable violence. He has lived most of his life in abject poverty. Dennis has worked to feed himself while working menial jobs, jobs most Boston Law students would never stoop to doing, like shoving cow poop. And he did it, not for a $15 an hour minimum wage, but for 50 cents a day. He got a better job. He worked at a slaughterhouse to support his family. He also plays baseball. Dennis wants to play professional baseball in America. Instead of complaining about his poverty, his living conditions, the lack of decent equipment, or that the fields he plays on in Uganda are nothing more than red dirt, he’s worked to improve himself.
With the aid of viral videos available on YouTube, Dennis has used a variety of items, like discarded tires and water bottles for weights; he’s worked on making himself better at the game he loves. He described working at improving at his position (catcher) as “leisure time.” He said:
“During my leisure time, I would hit and throw, and hit and throw”
The viral videos got the attention of mentors and Major League Baseball scouts, and they, in turn, got in touch with Dennis’s coach. Sean Campbell of the MLB Draft League noticed too. Dennis was invited to attend a workout, and considering that he had never played with or against anyone with any marketable skill, he performed admirably. He has no MLB fundamentals. Heck, he doesn’t even have high school or college level fundamentals, but he has the desire and work ethic, from what I saw, the physicality to play and play well. In short, he’s an athlete, and what he needs now are mentors and training. What he doesn’t need is to be told to “put in the work.” Dennis already knows that.
Dennis isn’t a whiner. He’s a winner. He won’t complain about second or third-rate equipment or his catcher’s mitt not being broken in. He’ll just ask his coach:
“What can I do to get better?”
Dennis might not make MLB, but that’s not the point. Dennis is a winner. A winner at life.
Dennis is the type of young man I admire, not a whining Boston College Law School student who crawls into a corner and needs “therapy” because they read a tweet they didn’t like.
America needs more Dennis Kusambas.