The Quote

For this blog entry, here's a topic that has nothing yet everything to do about South Florida. Yesterday I read a quote from Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. Who, you ask? Yeah, I didn't know him either until about a week ago.

Qureshi, a Pakistani, is one-half of men's doubles team that went all the way to the final of this year's U.S. Open. The finals, played on Sept. 10, had one of the best quotes I've heard in a while. When accepting the runner's up award, Qureshi was given the mike and an opportunity to address the 23,000 in the stands. Said Qureshi:

"There's a bad perception that Pakistan is a terrorist nation. We're a friendly, loving, caring people. We want peace as much as you guys. May god bless us all."

What makes the lil' speech even more impactful is that throughout this year Qureshi and his doubles partner Rohan Bopanna, from India, have been wearing the slogan "Stop War, Play Tennis" on their sweatshirts.

Whether or not sports is an appropriate platform for political talk, I'm not here to say. But in this case, I can appreciate Qureshi seizing this opportunity to speak in front of a crowd that saw so much disaster nine years ago. Call it political, call it brave, or just call it a person speaking about the elephant in the room. Either way, it was a message I'm happy to hear.