Carolina, a literary passage and music on my mind

Item 1: I don't see good times ahead for the Bengals. Carolina is a difficult matchup Sunday for Marvin Lewis' team. Wide receiver Steve Smith (Chad Johnson's junior college teammate) might be the single biggest playmaker in the NFL. He beats double-coverage consistently. If the Panthers can score 23 points on an excellent Baltimore defense in winning this past Sunday, they can score 33 against the Bengals. And the Bengals re-worked offensive line is almost certain to have big problems with the Panthers' explosive defensive line; Carson Palmer, meet Julius Peppers.

Item 2: The literary passage of the day comes from a book I was moved to grab today from a shelf here in my home office. I have read bits and pieces of this book, which is filled with personal essays. It's thought-provoking reading. I like this particular passage because, unlike me at times, it is not apologetic or insecure.

Here it is: "I have always laughed at the critics saying I am bitter and full of hate. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am not jealous or envious either. I am just me. And I do have strong feelings about that. I do not and did not and most likely will not ever feel that I have to justify that. I do not have to be a role model, a good preson, a credit to my race."

The book is titled "Racism 101. It was published in 1994 by William Morrow and Company, Inc. It was written by poet Nikki Giovanni.

Item 3: The lyric of the day returns after a three-day absence. It's a song for an election year from the first of two "Mermaid Avenue" album projects (1998), in which Billy Bragg and Wilco set previously unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics to music. Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy did the music for the song "Christ for President."

"Let's have Christ our President
Let us have him for our king
Cast your vote for the Carpenter
That they call the Nazarene

"The only way
We could ever beat
These crooked politician men

"Is to cast the moneychangers
Out of the temple
Put the Carpenter in

"Oh it's Jesus Christ our President
God above our king
With a job and pension for young and old
We will make hallelujah ring

"Every year we waste enough
To feed the ones who starve
We build our civilization up
And we shoot it down with wars

"But with the Carpenter
On the seat
Way up in the capitol town

"The USA
Be on the way
Prosperity bound"