14
B
JUSTIN ANANTAWAN
№ 13 BENCH WARMER
ODE TO BENC by: Justin Anantawan
By definition, a “bench warmer” is a sports player who does not get selected to play – a substitute who is left out of the game. When Beacon Quarterly called for submissions for this issue, I had to reflect on what that term meant to me. I do not play sports at all (in fact I am horrible at sports and have some not so fond memories of kicking soccer balls out of bounds or into the bloody noses of
classmates in high school) so I had examine the symbolic rather than the literal meaning. To me, “bench warmer” represents the people in our society who are marginalized – based on their sexual orientation, religion, race, social class, disability, mental health, gender identity, etc. These are the people who are not given the same basic human rights, media
