All-Star Comebacks

Pitchers and catchers report on Valentine’s Day for spring training in Florida and Arizona.  Players stretch limbs and arch backs, touching bases and pounding gloves with opening day in the major leagues only six weeks away.  Who will play in July’s All-Star Game?  What team will raise the late October World Series trophy?  Who will win the Comeback Player of the Year Award?  Recapturing lost promise, who came back from down and out to up and in?  

We already know two of this year’s comebackers—from way down to far up—heroic survivors of violence with steadfast commitment to truth.  Seeking a longer return to the scene of the crime, Harry Dunn runs for office to serve in the House of Representatives.  He risked his life protecting members of Congress and his very presence among them on the House floor will combat stupidity.  E. Jean Carroll walks into the courtroom to face the criminal she shares with Dunn.  Carroll’s bravery flips the page on sexual violence, the focus now aimed squarely on the perpetrator.   

After serving fifteen years as a Capitol Police Officer, Harry Dunn resigned in December to run for Congress as Maryland’s Third Congressional District representative.  “The support has been overwhelming and it shows me what I already knew: people believe in our democracy.”  He testified, along with three other law enforcement officers, before the January 6th Commission.  Officer Dunn defended the Capitol against all odds on that chilling day.  The title of his new book stresses his forward-thinking mindset: Standing My Ground: A Capitol Police Officer’s Fight for Accountability and Good Trouble After January 6th.  He’s running for Congress “to have a seat at the table and not just watch now.”  The candidate knows that people remain desperate for stability, for assurance of security and representation in Congress.  “I think it’s important to saturate Congress with truth tellers now.”  Having physically fought against mental illness on January 6th, mental health waits as Dunn’s first priority.  

Prolific freelance writer and author E. Jean Carroll lived with the trauma of her 1996 sexual assault by a serial criminal, and she took bold legal action against him in 2019.  Popular advice columnist in “Elle” magazine from 1993 until she was fired in 2020, she endured relentless public defamation and physical threats because of her lawsuit.  Carroll stayed the course.  A jury awarded her $5,000,000 for defamation and sexual abuse in a May 2023 civil case.  Facing continued defamation from the abuser, the plaintiff trudged forward with a second lawsuit.  Talking with Rachel Maddow about the day she faced him in court, Carroll vividly describes her terror.  When her lawyer Roberta Kaplan begins to question her, she looks for the first time at her assailant.  “It was an astonishing discovery for me.  He’s nothing.  He’s not there.  He’s a phantom.  We don’t need to be afraid.”  In late January 2024, a second jury awarded Carroll $83,300,000 for defamation.  Carroll proclaims: “This is a great victory for every woman who stands up when she’s been knocked down, and a huge defeat for every bully who has tried to keep a woman down.”  Presiding Judge Lewis A. Kaplan denied the criminal’s request for a mistrial.  With attorneys Kaplan and Shawn Crowley by her side, an exultant Carroll assures: “This bodes well for the future.” Her story reverberates on and on and on.  Carroll hands courage to victims pressing charges that were once thought impossible to prove.  Sexual assault and battery.  Rape.  Time’s up.  Time to pay. 

Yes, Harry Dunn and E. Jean Carroll. 

“Yes,” answers poet William Stafford, yes to “sunshine, love, salvation.”  He knows, as Dunn, Carroll and we know, that disasters lurks and hit hard.  Though there are “no guarantees,” yes, oh yes, to the bonus of “right now.”  Rip-roaring recovery.  Yes.    

“When we come to it,” poet Maya Angelou repeats at the United Nations, when we make peace and cool hostilities, we discover “A Brave and Startling Truth.”  Erase scorn and hatred.  No bombs or landmines.  Disconnect the clear link between “sanctimonious piety” and ceaseless violence.  Float on Angelou’s truth: “We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world.”  From us, from you and me, “come songs of such exquisite sweetness.”

Exquisite sweetness.  Two songs—two songstresses.  Back then—right now.  Comeback players—heart massagers.            

A young woman, checkout clerk in a convenience store in 1988, sings that “I had a feeling that I belonged.”  Tired of paying the bills for both delinquent father and driver, Tracy Chapman rides in a “Fast Car” while longing for a better life.  She packed millions of us with her in the back seat.  Thirty-six years later on February 4th, seldom-performing Chapman joined Luke Combs at the Grammys for another ride in her “Fast Car.”  This country/blues-soul duet shone—its harmony softened.  Chapman’s voice and fingers—her eyes and smile.  “I had a feeling that I could be someone, be someone.”  Combs bowed gratefully.  Fans applauded madly. Chapman, being someone beaming and beautiful, driving her own car.   

Saying “I love you right out loud” in 1969, a Canadian guitarist sings the lyrics she penned.  Ice cream castles.  Ferris wheels.  Feather canyons.  Clouds.  Joni Mitchell fulfills her youthful dream of becoming a painter.  She colors the world with her poetry, assuring that listeners look with her at “Both Sides Now.”  Struck by polio at age 9 and dealt plenty of mishaps, Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm in 2015.  She relearned how to walk, talk, and play the guitar.  Also at the Grammys and supported by true accompanists, Mitchell rebooted “Both Sides Now.”  Her intimate phrasing—her mounting confidence.  Tapping her cane—showing her soul.  Douse me with smelling salts.  An audience, in person and around the world, in tears and in love.  “The dizzy dancing way that you feel / As every fairy tale comes real.”

dizzy dancing days

listen as Seal proves you’re My

Funny Valentine

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