LITTLE ROCK — FOOTBALL? Basketball? Baseball? There’s nothing that’ll get some folks cheering like knowing somebody on the Jeopardy! television game show. And we had one of our own on the tube Monday and Tuesday. We’re still floating.
Leonard Cooper, a senior at the eSTEM charter school in downtown Little Rock, made the tournament, and then made the finals, and then . . . .
Stumbled a bit on the first day of the finals.
Oh, well. The finals on Jeopardy! are a two-day event, so Leonard had to come up big on Day Two.Which he did. (Insert sound of cheers, applause and whistles here.)
He stood there under the lights, arms folded across his chest in best gladiatorial style, clicking his buzzer just fractions of a second before his competitors. (It was an all-SEC event, his opponents being from Georgia and Kentucky.)
Mr. Leonard Cooper proceeded to build up a lead on Day Two. Then, late in the game, hit a Daily Double.
Knowing he had to gamble a bit, he . . . gambled more than a bit. He risked most of the day’s winnings-some $18,000. Eighteen thousands dollars. On one question.
In the play 12 Angry Men, what are the men all members of? Heck, any fan of old movies on TCM could answer that one, but maybe not with an audience listening to the contestant’s every syllable and waiting for him to stumble.
At first our contestant appeared to sigh. Our hearts sank. But he knew the answer. Or guessed correctly. They were all serving on a jury.
Leonard Cooper finished the day with 37K and a big enough lead in the stretch to win the tournament. And the $75,000 that came with the win. Faculty and students and anybody who wants to come will be having a fund-raising supper next Tuesday evening at 5:30 with a re-airing of Leonard’s triumph and a Jeopardy! match between him and members of the faculty. We wouldn’t bet on the faculty.
But one thing, Mr. Cooper.
Eisenhower! The man who addressed the troops on June 6, 1944, was Eisenhower! Ike! General of the Army! Couldn’t you hear us screaming it all the way from here in Little Rock, Ark.?Which is where the general achieved another notable victory for American ideals in 1957.
On June 6, 1944, as they would during the Little Rock Crisis, the general’s words heartened lovers of freedom everywhere:
“Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. . . . The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory! Have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory!”
And victory, called by its right name, victory uncompromised and unconditional, was what Ike’s boys-and the women of the armed forces of the United States-achieved. Whatever the terrible cost, which would be tallied in military cemeteries across this country. And in Europe, where their graves are forever American soil. Like the general’s words, their sacrifice will be honored. Like a blood debt.
Oh, yes, the general also scribbled out a communique he never had to send, the one announcing that the great invasion he’d led had failed to establish a beachhead on the European continent-and accepting full responsibility for that failure. No excuses, no blaming others, no evasions, no asking what difference it makes now. Just honesty and responsibility. No wonder Americans liked Ike.
Editorial, Pages 20 on 02/13/2013