Where I stand—Mike O’Callaghan: Prince not a commissioner

Tuesday, April 10, 2001 | 9:23 a.m.

WATCHING FEATHERWEIGHT Prince Naseem Hamed delay his match with Marco Antonio Barrera for 25 to 40 minutes, depending on whose watch you were using, was irritating. Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Marc Ratner was a gentleman, but appeared uncomfortable when asked about the delay. It was almost midnight before Eastern viewers could see the fight start. Hamed has always done what he wants to do and if the state athletic commissions don't like it -- so what. I didn't believe he could run the NSAC but he embarrassed the commissioners last Saturday night.

His delaying and outrageous entrance, plus a sermon for the rest of the world watching on television, was the height of arrogance. It was an XFL or WWF type of show. He ran everything and everybody except Barrera, who waited quietly, watched the whole show, and then gave him a boxing lesson while winning a unanimous decision.

You can bet his conduct didn't go unnoticed by the state commissioners. It will be interesting to see what happens if he returns to claim his tarnished crown.

It's still beyond me why the Army took the black berets from the Rangers and then told them they could wear tan berets. Why didn't Gen. Eric Shinseki, if he thought berets are such great morale raisers, leave the Rangers with their black berets and put tan ones on the remainder of the Army?

Then to add insult to injury he ordered that about two thirds of the new berets be made in China. This nonsense resulted in some rather biting humor coming over the Internet.

"What the EP-3 aircraft commander said to the air base commander when he shut down his engines after landing at the Chinese airfield, " 'We're here to pick up those black berets for Gen. Shinseki.' " "To: Chinese People's Government From: Chief of staff, U.S. Army YOU WILL RELEASE OUR PERSONNEL AND PROPERTY FORTHWITH OR OUR ENTIRE ORDER FOR BLACK BERETS IS CANCELLED. Shinseki." What may come as a shock to Pentagon types is that putting a black beret on the new "Army of One" man or woman won't turn them into lean, mean fighting machines. No kidding.

Next month, May, our area will be treated with a local story in Hispanic Monthly magazine. The cover story will be about Las Vegas, with a trip to the Strip and a story about Southern Nevada Hispanic leaders. It's a slick magazine with good color and very popular in Texas and other states in the Southwest.

The magazine's president/CEO, Miguel Barrientos Isassi, has set up his new office in Las Vegas and in June will cover the Phoenix Hispanic power structure. Assisting him in Las Vegas is old-time resident Fred Flores, who has plenty of writing experience.

This column expressed some serious concerns about using Edison in some of our schools. It is my opinion that given the same set of special circumstances and additional dollars and school hours the present system could possibly have the same success as Edison predicts.

Our Clark County School District leaders have determined that Edison will run a small number of our schools. Now that the decision has been made, we should hope they are successful. Whining and complaining about the use of Edison won't help our children. It's time to see what can be done to help the schools and watch closely to see that they meet the expectations the company predicts. Maybe, just maybe, they can give us some fresh ideas to be used in our other schools.