(Written June 27, 2016)
In spring 1981, I made good on a commitment to travel to Prague to conduct a series of basketball clinics. I had just retired as head basketball coach at Trinity College to spend a year with our autistic son, Danny, seeking ways to deal with our precious son's affliction. The Eastern Bloc invitation had been extended several years earlier by Czech basketball friends based on my Kingswood Oxford boys team winning the Prague Christmas Festival tournament back in 1976.
I took off from JFK in May of '81. The first stop on the journey was a two day layover in Dublin and Belfast to meet with Irish basketball officials on the state of the game in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Much of the day in Dublin was spent touring sports facilities, which made clear to me that there was no gymnasium in the Republic of Ireland comparable to a US junior high school gymnasium. I told my new Irish friends that once I completed my time with Danny, I would help them address the facility issue. 10 years later, we opened the Irish National Basketball Arena in Dublin.
My Belfast visit was not spent looking at sports facilities; the British government had already taken good care of that matter. The day was spent discussing how we could use basketball as a means to bring Catholic and Protestant youth together.
Several years after that day long visit, I developed, through the Institute for International Sport, a program called Belfast United. Quite simply, Belfast United involved the Institute forming basketball and soccer teams in Northern Ireland made up of equal numbers of Protestant and Catholic youth. I would put Belfast United next to any Northern Ireland youth program in helping to foster the peace that was declared years later. The "chipping effect" was the phrase we developed as we moved the project forward.
Our work in Belfast included the Institute administering several Northern Ireland Scholar Athlete Games, a number of symposiums, and the funding of interns and exchange programs with the United States. I even had Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Galway Kinnell, whom we inducted into the International Scholar Athlete Hall of Fame, travel to Belfast with me to promote the notion of sport and the arts fostering peace.
My time in Northern Ireland also encompassed countless conversations with Catholics who, in varying degrees, expressed their outrage over what they rightly perceived to be the oppressive practices of the British government. While they were not wrong in their opinions, those of us who ran Belfast United made clear that they were wrong in thinking that violence was the solution.
During this long process, while I came to develop great empathy for the plight of Catholics, I also came to understand that I would never truly understand their rage, only they could do so.
Many of you are aware of the media ethics project I have undertaken in relationship to my case. The project involves every word written and reported on the case being carefully scrutinized by a distinguished group of individuals. Once the analysis has been completed, the matter will be turned over to a selected school of journalism for an objective verdict on the fairness or lack thereof of the reporting. One of many "stand out" issues is a reporter who actually questioned our accomplishments over more than two decades of work in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Several weeks ago, my rage with the State of Rhode Island and the reptile element of the media brought me to a decision I would have never considered before this witch hunt was launched in late 2011 by a small group of misguided individuals, aka "Othello Fellows". I decided to engage in a series of protest fasts over what I allege to be the obstructionist tactics of the State of Rhode Island and University of Rhode Island regarding public information I have requested months ago. At present, I am not the least bit satisfied with the responses from either URI or the state regarding the dire need to produce information that goes right to the heart of my innocence. One demand the state is acutely aware of is the need to produce the written evaluations of the work of the Institute for International Sport, before each year of granting funds. Just as I would put Belfast United with any project in Northern Ireland in fostering peace, I will put our work at the Institute for International Sport next to any other organization which has received State of Rhode Island funds, dating back to our opening in a one-room office in 1986. Plain and simple, the evaluations need to be produced; they are a matter of public record.
As a consequence, I will begin a 3-day protest fast on Wednesday, June 29. If I do not receive satisfactory answers in the near future, I will begin another fast, and another fast, and then another fast.... Going forward, I will also employ other non-violent forms of civil disobedience.
I am grateful to those of you who reached out to me to express varying opinions and concern of what I recognize appears, on the surface, to be an extreme step. Be assured that I have taken proper medical precautions; be assured I know exactly what I am doing. I also want to make known that I have great admiration for my two attorneys. This was my idea, not theirs and I asked them to respect the deeply personal nature of this decision.
I believe it would difficult for even the most open-minded individual to fully understand my decision. But I am confident that when we put on the defense at trial, when the grand jury documentary is produced, when the media ethics report is issued, and when the media documentary is produced, these benchmarks will lend needed perspective, address troubling issues, including the extent of State of Rhode Island influence on media reporting, and provide clear answers based not on sensationalism but fact.
I assure you that I will never back off one inch on my innocence or my resolve to level the field.