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The recent primary election in New York City saw a record low turnout of fewer than 5% of eligible voters.
With 19 City Council seats and two district attorney seats up for grabs, thissignificantly low turnout, in comparison to what was seen for the mayoral primary in 2021—when 23% of eligible voters turned out, is troubling. True, several factors helped to cause the low turnout from this being an off-year election: no presidential, governor, or mayoral offices on the top of the ballot, and an unusual June voting date, which was mandated by new, court-ordered district lines necessitating another election and causing many to wonder, “Didn’t we just do this?”
What is the problem?
With so many people around the globe fighting for the right to vote, why is it that, in the United States, where we tout voting rights as a basic ingredient of our democracy—and where so many continue to fight for greater voting access and equality—voting turnout is so low? Even in recent presidential election years, voting turnout nationally has hovered around 60% and 40% for mid-term elections.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama put it this way: ”Here’s the problem: While some folks are frustrated and tuned out and stay home on Election Day, trust me, other folks are showing up. Democracy continues with or without you. When you don’t vote, what you’re really doing is letting someone else take power over your own life.”
George Carlin, the late comedian, proclaimed: “If you don’t vote, you lose the right to complain.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who spent so much of his career fighting for the right to vote for all Americans, would, no doubt, be saddened by today’s low voter turnout, which exemplifies his fear that “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Voting matters.
The problem of getting more people to vote has been grappled with for decades. Marshall McLuhan, the scholar considered to be the father of modern communications and media, famously noted, “American youth attributes more importance to arriving at their driver’s license age than their voting age.”
Rihanna, singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur, dealt with the issue of how to encourage and engage young adults to get involved with the political process by telling her youthful fans, “I don’t care what responsibilities you have today, there’s no greater responsibility than being in control of your future, and your future starts now! We don’t have time, no procrastinating, don’t let the discouragement take you off-course, that’s not how my people or my generation will go down…[voting] is the loudest way to make your voice heard!”
And Beyoncé, the Grammy Award-winning singer and artist, has been known to urge her audience to go to the polls by telling them, “Your voices are being heard and you’re proving to our ancestors that their struggles were not in vain. Now we have one more thing we need to do to walk in our true power, and that is to vote.”
But it’s not just the attention of new voters and younger voters we need to capture and cultivate. So many middle-aged, even long-time voters have been turned off and now tuned out to the current condition of politics. A sense of “nothing will change, so why bother” prevails. Even the encouraging advice of such highly regarded political pundits, like Peggy Noonan, seem to some to be too little, too late. When she argues that “Our political leaders will know our priorities only if we tell them, again and again, and if those priorities begin to show up in the polls,” many just shake their heads, thinking “Yeah, right!”
And so, there is yet another important ingredient to consider for fixing the low voter turnout conundrum: the candidates. Not just the credentials, but their ability—and desire—to communicate and connect firsthand with the voters. Polling has taken the place of talking directly to people. On Election Day, the old-fashioned, but successful tactics of a “pulling operation” with door-to-door volunteers and sound trucks roaming the streets announcing the day, has been reconfigured to robo calls that most of us hang up on.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the composer, actor, and creator of ”Hamilton,” famously tells his audience:“Our nation is asking to hear your voice because November is coming and so is your choice. Do not throw away your shot.”
True. As we encourage voters’ involvement, let’s hear more person-to-person from the candidates, too. Sure, our vote is our voice, but we also need a conversation to help produce it.
VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!
Gregory Floyd is president of Teamsters Local 237 and vice president at large of the General Board of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Undefeated heavyweight boxer Jared Anderson, 23, was scheduled to face Zhan Kossobutskiy this past Saturday, but when Kossobutskiy, also undefeated, was forced to withdraw from the bout due to visa issues. Former IBF heavyweight world champion Charles Martin stepped in, perhaps posing a more difficult fight.
Yet Anderson (15-0, 14KOs) passed the biggest challenge of his career, going the distance and past the sixth round for the first time in his young career, soundly defeating the 37-year-old veteran boxer Martin (29-4-1, 26 KOs) via a 10-round unanimous decision at the Huntington Center in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio. The three judges scored the fight at 99-90, 98-91, and 99-90. Anderson retained his WBC-USNBC and WBO International heavyweight titles. Although Anderson won at least eight rounds of the fight, Martin, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, seemingly had him in trouble in the fifth round. But Anderson showed he has a good chin, perseverance, and the ring acumen to make adjustments, surviving the round after he appeared hurt.
“Do I feel like he got me with a good shot and made me aware? Yes, so I had to readjust and get back to the game plan,” Anderson said after his win. “He took the fight on short notice. He came and performed really good. I think we put on a hell of a show for Toledo.” Martin was equally complimentary of his opponent, who was 13 years his junior.
“He’s really good,” Martin said. “He’s a crafty boxer. Usually, when I catch somebody and hurt them, I can finish them. If they don’t fall, usually I can follow up and put them away. But he is like a little middleweight.
“He is crafty,” Martin went on. “He was able to get out even when he was rocked. He was able to maneuver and get out [of] the way. He’s going to be a champion.” The upcoming weekend is a big one in combat sports. In Atlantic City, Jaron Ennis will defend his IBF interim welterweight title against Roiman Villa at Boardwalk Hall. Ennis has previously called out Errol Spence Jr., and is likely to do so again and throw in Terence Crawford. Spence and Crawford will face off on July 29 in a welterweight pairing that is as hyped and anticipated as any fight has been over the past half decade. The T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas will be the site of Saturday’s UFC 290 card, with Alexander Volkanovski defending his featherweight championship against Yair Rodríguez. Volkanovski dared to be great and attempted to become a double champion in February, but lost to UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. He will try to avoid back-to-back losses grappling with the dangerous Rodriguez. The prelims will take place at 8 p.m. on ESPN, with the pay-per-view beginning at 10 p.m. on ESPN+. On July 15 in Detroit, Alycia Baumgardner will defend her WBC, IBF, WBO, WBA, IBO, and the Ring female super-featherweight titles against Christina Linardatou.
The Knicks didn’t make a seismic signing or trade in the opening days of NBA free agency, which officially began at 6 p.m. last Friday. As of yesterday, the two most prominent transactions were dealing forward Obi Toppin to the Indiana Pacers last Saturday for two future second-round picks, and signing former Villanova standout Donte DiVincenzo to a four-year, $50 million contract.
Neither move ostensibly makes the Knicks discernibly better or detracts from a team that is striving to build on a 47-35 record and No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference last season. Their glaring weaknesses remain a dearth of multiple efficient perimeter shooters and the absence of an impactful two-way wing player.
Toppin, a product of Brooklyn who the Knicks drafted No. 8 overall in 2020 after he won virtually every major college player of the year award in his second season at Dayton, was a polarizing presence as a Knick. A large contingent of the team’s fans were adamant in their belief that the 6-foot-9 Toppin had the potential to be one of the Knicks’ best and most productive players if afforded an expanded role in head coach Tom Thibodeau’s rotation.
Over his three seasons with the Knicks, the uber-athletic 2023 NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion logged just 14.7 minutes per game in 201 games played. Two seasons ago, he averaged a career-high 17.1 minutes in 72 games, but this past season those numbers dropped to 15.7 and 67. His cumulative average field goal attempts was only 5.5. He found sparse opportunities playing behind All-NBA forward Julius Randle. Toppin’s supporters note his superior ability to run the floor, improvement in three-point shooting year over year, and dynamic capacity to finish around the rim.
The opposing faction argues that Toppin thus far has shown limited offensive skills essentially playing as a stretch four, never developing an effective arsenal off the dribble going to the basket, or utilizing a dribble pull up jump shot, a spotty mid-range game, and poor defensive fundamentals. Toppin reportedly had a heated verbal dispute with Thibodeau over a lack of playing time during the Knicks’ Eastern Conference semifinal series versus the Miami Heat in May.
Now the 25-year-old—undoubtedly with a chip on his broad shoulders—will certainly play many more minutes with the Pacers than he did with the Knicks, providing further testimony, pro or con, to settle the debate.
The signing of DiVincenzo reunites him with college teammates Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart. The 26-year-old, 6-foot-4 combo guard from Newark, Delaware, completed his sixth NBA season in May averaging 9.4 points on .435 shooting overall and .397 on 3-pointers in 72 games for the Golden State Warriors. The Knicks will be the fifth team for which he has played. They will look for DiVincenzo to give them much needed improved perimeter shooting manning both backcourt spots.
The Knicks, who didn’t have a pick in last month’s draft, begin the NBA 2K24 Summer League in Las Vegas this Saturday with a 5 p.m. matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers on NBA TV. They’ll face the Nets on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. on NBA TV. The Knicks will play a minimum of five games as the league operates from July 7 through July 17.
A player to closely watch among others is 21-year-old Trevor Keels, who was drafted by the Knicks in the second round (No. 42) last year out of Duke and spent this past season on a two-way contract splitting time with the NBA team and their G League squad, the Westchester Knicks.
The New York Liberty went into last night’s (Wednesday’s) game against the Phoenix Mercury at the Barclays Center as first in the Eastern Conference at 11-4 and with the second-best record overall in the WNBA.
After accumulating six wins in seven games, the Liberty headed to Las Vegas last Thursday to face the Aces, the only team with a better record in the WNBA this season. The Aces have been virtually unstoppable. They were 15-1 going into their matchup last night against the Dallas Wings. The defending WNBA Champions showed their dominance versus the Liberty, prevailing 98–81. All five starters on the Aces’ scored in double figures. Four Liberty players scored in double figures, but as is common in Las Vegas, the house won.
The Liberty continued its West Coast road trip Sunday in Seattle, where they created sunny skies over the Storm, coming away with a 81–66 win. Liberty star Breanna Stewart made her return to Seattle—she played for the Storm her entire WNBA career before signing with the Liberty in February and won two championships with the Storm, in 2018 and 2020. There are additional ties between the teams: Four Storm players are former Libertys, including Sami Whitcomb, who was an integral part of New York’s playoff runs in 2021 and 2022.
“The way that we moved the ball is kind of like the standard of what we want to do,” said Stewart after the victory over the Storm. “Last game, [versus the Aces], we struggled in a lot of different areas, but assists were one thing that stuck out a little bit. [We’re] getting back to that and making sure we finish this road trip strong.”
This was the Liberty’s second time playing the Storm in Seattle this season. Stewart admitted the first time was emotional for her, but she has to continue to focus on where she is now. “I’ll always appreciate Seattle for what we’ve been able to do together, but I’m happy to be in New York,” she said.
After the win over the Storm, Courtney Vandersloot and Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello praised Sabrina Ionescu, who was a vital presence despite not having her best shooting night. “Sabrina impacts the game in other ways,” said Vandersloot. “We’re just different when she’s on the floor, whether she’s making shots or not.”The WNBA All-Star Game will take place on July 15 in Las Vegas. In addition to Stewart, who was voted in by the fans and will be an All-Star captain, Liberty players Ionescu and Vandersloot were selected to play. This will be the first time since 2003 that the Liberty will have three players in an All-Star Game. The Liberty will host the Storm at Barclays Center on Saturday afternoon and be in Indiana next Wednesday to meet the Fever before a six-day All-Star break.
It’s been nine days since Mets owner Steve Cohen held a press conference to convey his outlook on the team with the highest payroll in Major League Baseball (MLB) at roughly $360 million. When Cohen met with the media on June 28, the Mets were a shockingly unexpected 36-44 and 17 games behind the first place Atlanta Braves in the National League East.
Few who closely follow MLB envisioned a team that had plausible World Series aspirations before this season began plummeting so dramatically after going 101-61 last season, a win total that tied them with the Braves for third-most in the entire league.
The Mets’ precarious and seemingly irreversible situation compelled Cohen to be fully transparent in his plans as he continues to assess a group constructed by general manager Billy Eppler and guided by manager Buck Showalter that, then and now, has not displayed a modicum of discernible evidence they will course-correct and rise into playoff contention in the weeks ahead.
“I’m preparing my management team for all possibilities. If they don’t get better, we have decisions to make at the trade deadline. That’s not my preferred end result,” said Cohen.
“It’s been incredibly frustrating,” Cohen expanded. ”I watch every game, I watch what’s going on. Would I have expected us to be in this position at the beginning of the season? No. But here we are. It’s kind of weird. It’s kind of strange to me. I don’t know if the players are anxious. I don’t know if they’re pressing.”
Like so many Mets fans who share Cohen’s discontent and disappointment, the how is obvious but the why is much more confounding. Fundamentally, the how is the Mets have collectively failed to consistently pitch and hit well enough to string together wins. As of last night, when they went into the second game of a three-game series versus the Arizona Diamondbacks on the road, the Mets were 39-46—fourth place in the National League and one game further (18) behind the first-place Braves than when Cohen convened the presser.
To underscore their underachievement, only one Met—first baseman Pete Alonso—has been named to the 2023 NL All-Star team. Their series win over the San Francisco Giants this past weekend, taking two out of three at Citi Field, was their first series victory in a month, the previous coming from May 30 to June 1 when they swept three games from the Philadelphia Phillies at home in Queens. The Mets’ 8-5 win over the Diamondbacks on Monday marked their first three-game winning streak since blanking the Phillies. They beat the Giants 4-1 on Saturday and 8-4 on Sunday before heading out West.
One positive takeaway for the Mets in the midst of deep dismay has been starter Max Scherzer, who defeated the Diamondbacks 8-5 on the Fourth of July to win his sixth straight decision. Scherzer is 8-2 and scheduled to make his last start on Sunday against the Padres in San Diego before MLB’s All-Star break. The Mets end their series with Arizona today and begin a three-game set with the Padres tomorrow.
Cohen said taking a measured approach to dealing with the Mets’ issues is the most prudent path.
“I’m a patient guy. Everybody wants a headline: Fire this person, fire that person,” he said. “But I don’t see that as a way to operate. If you want to attract good people to this organization, the worst thing you can do is be impulsive and win the headline for the day. I know the fans want something to happen, but sometimes you can’t do it because you have long-term objectives.”
In “Breaking the Ice,” an eight-part docuseries that makes its debut tonight on WE TV, Washington, D.C.-based coach Rory Flack, a trailblazing skater in both the amateur and professional ranks, as she assembles, coaches, and introduces to the world a synchronized skating team composed totally of girls of color. The 10 middle and high school girls who comprise the team had some prior skating experience and were chosen after a tryout.
“One of the girls I had been teaching for about two years; another one I knew and one more was a beginner when I started teaching her,” said Flack. Her son, Remington Burghart, works with her on coaching Team DMV. “He helped me pick the skaters. He also works with me side-by-side. He’s able to spot the qualities that I’m looking for, so I have four eyes on the ice instead of just my two.”
Remington, a former pairs skater, also helps with lifts, music, and synchronicity. As Flack struggles with sarcoidosis that at times keeps her from being on the ice as much as she would like, he is able to be with the team.
Parental involvement has been growing as the series evolves. “We started with one practice a week because that’s all the parents were prepared to do,” said Flack. “As we got into it, they were wanting to do more and more and more, so we slowly picked up ice time in the competitive season.”
Having everything captured on film was a lot of fun, but it did get a little intense at times. “It’s really cool that I got to be me on camera, and for the kids and hopefully the audience to see the sparks in their eyes when they start to understand,” Flack said.
For the series, DMV has a double meaning. It obviously reflects the locale of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, but it also stands for Divine Motivational Visionaries, the force that drives the skaters and their coaches.
Although on-ice filming for “Breaking the Ice” concluded in April, Flack hopes to continue working with the team.
“Their comfort in front of the camera came with their comfort on the ice,” she said. “I saw them progressing as their speed increased, as their skating improved, as they started to connect more on the ice…and bond as a team. I saw their confidence grow. I would like to develop this team for years to come.”
LeBron James is one of the most famous athletes in the world, so finding an actor to portray him as a teenager was a daunting task for Chris Robinson, director “Shooting Stars,” a film adaptation of James’s and Buzz Bissinger’s book. After a year of auditions and no actor as the right fit, Robinson and a friend drove up and down the East Coast attending basketball tournaments.
“My friend texted me a photograph of Mookie,” said Robinson, of casting Mookie Cook, who will play for the Oregon Ducks this coming college season. “Acting was not on his radar…but from the moment we saw him on Zoom, he just embodied LeBron.”
The film, which debuted on the streaming service Peacock last month, shows the tight bond between James and his teammates, which started when they were in elementary school and was etched in history as they garnered national attention during high school. “Shooting Stars” contains multiple basketball scenes, and production and actors wanted them to look as realistic as possible. There were choreographers who helped set things up and, said Robinson, “We utilized YouTube to the highest level.”
“I never really aspired to do a sports movie…but I read [the book] and what really touched me were the relationships,” said Robinson, who spent time in James’s hometown of Akron, Ohio. “So many films that deal with young Black men are filled with trauma and pain, and this movie was different. It was connected to brotherhood and loyalty. Absolutely, there was struggle and tough times in the movie, but they stuck together.”
Most of the actors portraying James and his teammates had little to no acting experience. Scoot Henderson, who portrayed Romeo, was recently the third pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. The lone seasoned actor was Caleb McLaughlin (Lil Dru), whose extensive acting résumé includes the popular series “Stranger Things” and “Lion King” on Broadway. Robinson said the actors truly felt that deep and abiding connection that James had and still has with his high school teammates.
“We put the guys through a gauntlet of basketball because we really wanted that to be authentic,” said Robinson. “These guys who did not know each other came together as actors and athletes and poured into each other…They were embodying a group of guys who really did everything for each other. As actors, they started that same relationship. It was magical to watch.”
