How The Feds Executed My Parents: Michael Meeropol, Son of The Rosenbergs

Edge of Sports

Dave Zirin / The Nation

Sports, History, News, Politics, Sports News

4.8 • 619 Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2016

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We speak this week to Michael Meeropol, whose parents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were executed by the US government in 1953. We talk about his efforts to clear his mother's name and the importance of the Brooklyn Dodgers in their lives. Meeropol reads from the letters of his parents where they discuss baseball. I also have choice words about rap icon Kurtis Blow and his underrated importance to the development of the NBA as a global phenomenon. Finally we have a tribute to the late Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, via a t-shirt on our weekly Kaepernick watch.Dave in Seattle with Seahawk Michael Bennett on January 5, 2017: https://townhallseattle.org/event/dave-zirin/ http://fb.com/events/1139387102852694Michael and Robert Meeropol, We Are Your Sons: The Legacy of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg Exonerate our Mother, Ethel Rosenberg: http://www.rfc.org/ethelChange.org petition: https://www.change.org/p/president-obama-exonerate-our-mother-ethel-rosenbergThe Assassination of Fred Hampton: http://www.hamptonbook.com/The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution: http://theblackpanthers.com/music: The Show - Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew | We the People.... - A Tribe Called Quest | Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday (Words & music by Abel Meeropol) | Blood on the Leaves - Kanye West | Basketball, 8 Million Stories - Kurtis Blow | Peter Piper - Run DMC | Starboy - The Weeknd Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Edge of Sports listeners, this is Dave Ziron.
0:02.5	If you live in Seattle, you've got to come out to Town Hall, Seattle on January 5th.
0:07.4	I will be interviewing Seattle Seahawk Michael Bennett, otherwise known as Moses Bread 72.
0:13.9	I'm going to be talking to Michael Bennett about sports, politics, and everything in between by one of the most thoughtful guys out there.
0:21.1	Details to get tickets in the description of this podcast.
0:27.5	Welcome to The Edge of Sports podcast. I'm Dave Ziron.
0:31.0	This week we speak to Michael Mirapole, the son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg,
0:35.8	the married couple executed on June 19, 1953, for conspiracy to commit espionage.
0:48.4	Today it is widely accepted, thanks to declassified documents that Ethel Rosenberg was innocent, executed as part of
0:56.1	U.S. Cold War posturing against the Russians. In 1953, Michael Mirapol, just a young boy
1:02.3	approached the White House with his brother Robert with a letter for Dwight Eisenhower begging
1:06.9	that their mother be spared. Last week, 63 years after they approached the White House,
1:13.8	they did so again, asking President Obama to clear their mother's name.
1:19.3	Ethel Rosenberg's trial was a travesty. It was an unjust conviction. Her conviction and death
1:25.4	sentence were unjust and her execution was wrongful.
1:29.5	And I spoke to Michael Mirapol, and he told me about the importance of baseball to his parents
1:34.4	and the presence in the letters they sent their sons from death row.
1:38.3	And I have Michael Mirapole on the line to speak about baseball, the Rosenbergs, and the execution of two parents.
1:47.7	Michael Mirapel, for those who are just simply not familiar with the history, what was the
1:54.0	rationale used by the state to execute your parents, the Rosenbergs?
1:59.5	Very, very straightforward.
2:01.1	They had stolen the secret of the atom bomb and placed our nation's very survival in jeopardy,
	...

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