More Finish Lines to Cross

Notes on Race, Redemption, and Hope

Cary Clack

• Publisher: Maverick Books
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781595340375
• eBook ISBN: 9781595342720
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Cary Clack has captured the hearts and minds of Texans since the mid-1990s, gaining a national reputation as an incisive and sensitive journalist and developing a significant following as a columnist. Originally from San Antonio, he worked with the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta (writing CNN commentaries for Coretta Scott King) to hone his communication skills and broaden his social sensibilities. Returning to his hometown, he quickly became known as a writer who profiled everyday heroes and captured stories unique to the Texas experience, adding a critical local perspective to national news. His columns are infused with a sense of humility and a keen examination of the humanness in others.Following sixteen years as a journalist, Clack pursued interests in politics, social policy, and service, including work with the mayor of San Antonio, U.S. congressman Joaquin Castro, and others. More Finish Lines to Cross is a collection of Clack's best short- and long-form columns since his return to the San Antonio Express-News in 2019. It includes more than eighty pieces about the issues of the day, from Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and the war in Ukraine to the impact of COVID, the death of George Floyd, and the mass shooting of schoolchildren in Uvalde, Texas. Along the way we meet the people who influenced Clack, which in turn reminds us to reflect on how we become the people we are and what inspires us to be better members of our communities.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword, by Joe Holley
• Introduction
• Five Precious Words from a Poet {May 2014}
• It’s What Jesus Said That Matters {March 2016}
• Ali Taught Us about the Courage of Convictions {June 2016}
• As Humanity Suffers, What Will We Choose? {July 2016}
• Son of Slaves Fathered Inspiring Family {May 2017}
• What Can Be Found in the Stacks {August 2017}
• King’s Legacy Lives, but His Dreams Remain Unfulfilled {March 2018}
• Back to Denver Heights {May 2019}
• Returning to the Paper Felt Right {December 2019}
• Sometimes a Mystery Is Part of the Family {December 2019}
• Slavery Is Intertwined in Alamo’s History {January 2020}
• How MLK and Coretta Scott King Changed My Life {January 2020}
• The Bout {February 2020}
• From a Distance, Hold Tight to One Another {March 2020}
• In Her Legacy, Notes of What Awaited Selena {March 2020}
• It’s Not the Cat’s Meow {April 2020}
• The Last Moments with a Beloved Friend {April 2020}
• Recent Protesters Are Exact Opposite of Rosa Parks {April 2020}
• Strangers Unite in Tragedy to Offer Comfort {May 2020}
• Not Possible to Write Too Much about Race {May 2020}
• An Urgency to Complete Juneteenth’s Emancipation {June 2020}
• The Ways Black People Must Discuss Race {June 2020}
• This Generation’s Emmett Till Moment {June 2020}
• An Overdue Retirement of Racially Stereotyped Brands {June 2020}
• What Is Heritage if Not Truth to History? {June 2020}
• The Goodness inside Elf Louise {July 2020}
• Is This Moment When We Bend the Arc? {June 2020}
• A Man as Saintly as Humanly Possible {July 2020}
• Unease on Both Sides {August 2020}
• The American President Who Stood Two Feet Tall {August 2020}
• Black Athletes Again Call for Justice {August 2020}
• Clock of Justice Still out of Sync {September 2020}
• Yearning to Breathe Free of Trump’s Politics {September 2020}
• Headed to the Polls with History to Guide Me {October 2020}
• The Greatest San Antonio Singer You Never Knew {October 2020}
• In Race for Equality, More Finish Lines to Cross {October 2020}
• With Hope after Ruins of Past Four Years {November 2020}
• When Gunfire Is Routine, so Is the Response {November 2020}
• Which Christmas Star Is She? {December 2020}
• The Light That Still Beams on Maury’s Kids {January 2021}
• Trump Lit the Matches, and the Nation Burned {January 2021}
• Trump Insurrection Steeped in American Racism {January 2021}
• A Shameful Ending to a Shameful Presidency {January 2021}
• Cherish Our Living Links to the Past {January 2021}
• Slavery of the Past Looms over the Present {February 2021}
• Inequality Can Only Be Reversed with Intent {February 2021}
• May This Winter Storm Thaw Our Conscience {February 2021}
• Pop Only Says What Nation Needs to Hear {April 2021}
• Still Exalting Valleys and Making Low Hills and Mountains {April 2021}
• With a Guilty Verdict, the Moral Arc Slowly Bends {April 2021}
• It’s Voter Suppression in Texas, not Ballot Security {April 2021}
• To Sanitize 1619 Is to Deny America’s History {May 2021}
• Marvin Gaye’s Genius Timeless {May 2021}
• Remember These Other Massacres of Blacks, Too {June 2021}
• Leave Fears about the Colonoscopy Behind {June 2021}
• Don’t Just Use MLK’s Thirty-Five Words as Protective Shield {July 2021}
• Yeah, That’s My Dad {June 2021}
• History Won’t Judge Texas’s Voter Suppression Law Kindly {September 2021}
• Reproductive Freedom—That’s Male Privilege {September 2021}
• 9/11 Attacks Reverberate Twenty Years Later {September 2021}
• Attacks on Critical Race Theory Reflect Willful Ignorance {October 2021}
• Singing the Blues over Ted Cruz’s Misuse of “Woke” {November 2021}
• ’Tis the Season of That Rude Christmas Song {December 2021}
• Hope Perseveres like a Lost Butterfly in Winter {December 2021}
• On Thanksgiving, Concern for Others Merits Gratitude Too {November 2021}
• To Be American Is to See That US Ideals Can Die {January 2022}
• Haunted by Voices in the Dark {January 2022}
• Something about Court Promise Ignites Bias {February 2022}
• Zelenskyy Is an Authentic Hero {March 2022}
• Jackson Serves Up Grace to Make History {March 2022}
• Precious Lord, Take Our Hands {April 2022}
• Without Confronting Hate, There Is No Stopping It {April 2022}
• Trump’s Fear of Fruit Comes Flying onto Political Stage {April 2022}
• Babies Suffer; Abbott, Ever Cynical, Sees a Wedge {May 2022}
• Brewing Hatred in Buffalo Shatters Trust {May 2022}
• Again and Again, We Bear Witness to Tragedy {May 2022}
• The Fairy Tale America Tells Itself about Our Gun Nightmare {June 2022}
• After Uvalde, What Will “Truly Good of Heart” Do? {June 2022}
• No Moving on from Uvalde {June 2022}
• A Saint Who Worked Miracles with the ’Fro {July 2022}
• This July Fourth Rededicate Ourselves to Democracy {July 2022}
• Laugh Was the Profanity, Not O’Rourke’s Word Choice {August 2022}
• Fruitcakes Have Fillings, Too {November 2022}
• The Heartbreak of Being a Cowboys Fan {January 2023}
• Some Voices Lift, Others Divide {February 2023}
• A Dance Party with a Side of Produce {March 2023}
• Somebody’s Child Was Helped {March 2023}
• Keep Marching, Children {April 2023}
• Love of “Our Theresa” Endures {June 2023}
• Acknowledgments