Within the chaos, the polarizing politics, the seemingly endless onslaught of depression to come down the ticker in the year 2020, I was lucky enough become an uncle back in April — my sister giving birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl.
As I reveled in the slim ray of light that was such good news in such dark times, the anxiety and doubt that become so commonplace deep within the cerebellums of millions of Americans slowly began to rear its ugly face in the innermost machinations of my mind.
What kind of world is this child being brought into?
Is her safety a guarantee like it was for me and my family in the decades before here in New York?
Will she be accounted for equally — if not more — than other citizens in this country?
Will she be afforded the same type of opportunities her male peers will surely find?
A few months ago, I wasn’t so sure given the climate of the United States, the vitriol that spews from its citizens, and the way many — including those who hold the highest responsibilities in this country — view women.
Now, following the events of just a few short weeks in November, I’m a little more confident.
On Friday, the Miami Marlins hired Kim Ng as their new general manager, breaking a longstanding glass ceiling that saw her become the first woman to become a GM of a major North American men’s professional sports team.
It was a long-overdue promotion for the 51-year-old, who has spent the last 30 years working in various front offices around Major League Baseball while building a well-deserved reputation as one of the very best and brightest in her field.
And still, it took her 15 years after first interviewing for the role of GM with the Los Angeles Dodgers to finally get in this position.
A swift, rare victory for Major League Baseball during a year in which commissioner Rob Manfred, the owners, and the players’ union got almost everything else wrong — ranging from the handling of the coronavirus, its return-to-play strategies, and its punishment of the Houston Astros following the game’s largest scandal in 100 years.
Ng’s hiring was just the icing on the cake of a momentous first half of November, though, as her groundbreaking advancement amongst baseball’s ranks came less than one week after Joe Biden was confirmed as the President-elect — and with it, the confirmation that Kamala Harris will become the first female Vice President in the history of the United States.
For these few, brief, blissful moments, the worries that came with the way the 45th President of the United States spoke of and treated women, the confirmation of Amy Coney-Barrett to the Supreme Court, the uncertainty of women being afforded full and comprehensive healthcare, their ability to be viewed as equals in the workplace — which I’ve experienced firsthand plenty of times working in the sports field — melted away.
It’s a new day in the United States, and hopefully, for my niece and young girls everywhere, it’s the spark for a much better tomorrow.
