As Ukraine burns!
The Friday Flashpoints....
Nobody asked me but...
***Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky asked a question yesterday that will echo throughout the ages: “Who is ready to fight with us?”
Sorry, Mr. President, but few to none of the powers that could tip the scales against the Russian invasion seem willing to wage war to save your nation.
There's so much to unpack with regards to President Zelensky's reality, but with a nod to the old saying that "there's nothing new under the sun," the United States and Great Britain, two of the three powers that promised to defend Ukraine per the 1994 Budapest Memorandum that led to Ukraine giving up all of its nuclear weapons, have both signaled that they will not commit military forces to defend per that agreement. With the third co-signatory, Russia, being the aggressor, it is clear that Ukraine will fight alone from a military standpoint.
Now, I do not mean to suggest through this prong that America or Great Britian have done wrong in balking on this agreement; for the record I agree with restraint due to the unstable nature of Russian Dictator Vladimir Putin and the possibility of a nuclear war.
But I do wonder what more could have been done in the past several weeks to ensure that Ukraine and her citizens have all of the necessary weapons to fight off their Russian neighbors? Perhaps more rifles, more pistols, more ammunition, more javelin missiles, more stinger missiles, more of the surplus that sits in European and American military supply warehouses that could be used right now to inflict maximum carnage among the invading Russians could have been hurriedly shipped?
I don’t know, but I do sense that those questions, too, will echo throughout history—should Ukraine fall...
***While my prayers are with the people of Ukraine, my admiration is with them, too, as their outnumbered military is being bolstered by private citizens who are arming themselves and preparing to resist!
For that reason, when you read or hear that Russia's Blitzkrieg has the Reds making significant strides into Ukraine's interior, keep in mind that fighting will become more bitter and fraught with peril for the invading Army when they get into Kyiv or other major cities and have to deal with snipers, counter-insurgents, and a people that will give their all to remain free from Kremlin control!
***During a brief speech yesterday, President Joe Biden condemned Russia's attack and outlined sanctions and promises others in the days ahead. Said Biden, “The United States and our allies and partners will emerge from this stronger, more united, more determined and more purposeful. Putin's aggression against Ukraine will end up costing Russia dearly, economically and strategically. We will make sure that Putin will be a pariah on the international stage.”
Well, I do not think that Putin cares too much about being a pariah, but over time, the billionaire Russian oligarchs that have trillions in assets frozen this morning, both in American and European banks, surely will care and just may get weary of Putin's belligerent activities in the days ahead. Or, the Russian people, many of whom took to the streets to protest yesterday, just may grow tired of seeing supplies diminish due to embargoes.
As such, I do not see economic sanctions as “weak,” as former President Donald Trump joked while applauding Putin for being “savvy” and “smart” last night at his Mar-A-Lago residence, but sanctions surely are the long game for what could be a long fight ahead for Ukrainians.
***None too dissimilar from Adolf Hitler's Blitzkrieg into Poland back in 1939, Russia's invasion force is blowing up residential areas and hospitals as part of their incursion. These facts are confirmed by pictures of hollowed out apartment buildings and bloody civilians, and lamented by Ukraine's President Zelensky, who said: “They say that civilian objects are not a target for them, it is a lie, they do not distinguish in which areas to operate.”
Indeed, it is a lie, and just further indication of the evil designs of Putin, a physically tiny man with delusions of a return to Soviet Union era grandeur.
***You probably recall from your old history classes that the United Nations was formed following World War II to prevent the possibility of a World War III. While the organization has procured many benefits with regards to humanitarian foci across the globe in the seven decades since its founding, it has fallen short of the mark, time and again, with regards to stopping imperialism by its most well armed Security Council members, the United States (Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan), or the Soviet Union/Russia (Afghanistan, Crimea, Ukraine).
Addressing Russia's latest aggression, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said, “Under the present circumstances, I must change my appeal: President Putin, in the name of humanity, bring your troops back to Russia..."
Stay tuned to the Hobbservation Point to learn whether Russia accedes to the U.N.'s demand (deep sarcasm intended).
***Speaking of the U.N., as I watched coverage of Russia's invasion yesterday, I was reminded of the time back in 1987 when I was a 10th grade participant in the Model United Nations at Florida State University.
To my surprise, I was selected to serve as the Soviet Ambassador to the United Nations! During our role play period, I truly enjoyed helping to facilitate the Soviet invasion of South Africa from bases in Angola; our imaginary Red Army then freed poltical prisoner Nelson Mandela and ended apartheid all in one afternoon, thanks in no small measure to Ambassador Hobbs!😆
Breaking News: (Per CNN) President Joe Biden is poised to announce Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the first Black woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court!
Congratulations, your Honor! Stay tuned to the Point for more about her life and the confirmation hearings that lie ahead!
Black History Hobbservations
Buck Colbert Franklin, famed Attorney for Tulsa Massacre survivors
Attorney Buck Colbert "B.C." Franklin was born on May 6, 1879, near the town of Homer in Pickens County, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory. After being educated in segregated schools in the territory that later became the State of Oklahoma, upon graduation, Franklin began attending Roger Williams University in Nashville, an HBCU founded in 1866 that would close in 1929. Franklin would later transfer to what was then known as Atlanta Baptist College, where he came under the tutelage of a Classics professor named Dr. John Hope. Atlanta Baptist College was renamed Morehouse College in 1913, and Hope became the school's first Black President.
After finishing his studies, Franklin moved back to Oklahoma where he pursued a legal career in the predominantly white city of Ardmore. After facing virulent racism in his practice from white lawyers and judges alike, Franklin first moved to predominantly Black Rentiesville, Oklahoma before settling in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Tulsa during the early 20th Century was an extremely wealthy city due to the oil and gas refinery businesses nearby and many Blacks were financially well off in a Greenwood District filled with Black businesses that thrived in various fields of endeavor, including Franklin's law practice. Booker T. Washington High School, opened a few years earlier to educate Blacks, was first rate and a center of social life in the District.
In late May of 1921, Dickie Rowland, a young Black man, was accused of raping Sarah Page, a young white woman. When Rowland was arrested, as local whites began clamoring for a lynch mob that would deny him due process of law, a group of Black men—most of whom were World War I veterans—armed themselves and went to the jail to stand watch. What ensued over the next several days was a massacre, one that left hundreds of Blacks dead and saw the Greenwood District razed to the ground.
Franklin, a 42-year old husband and father, realized on the first day of unrest that a massacre was ready to unfold and would soon flee the city with his family. Before doing so, he was able to watch the carnage and later write down what he observed: "I could see planes circling in mid-air. They grew in number and hummed, darted and dipped low. I could hear something like hail falling upon the top of my office building. Down East Archer, I saw the old Mid-Way hotel on fire, burning from its top, and then another and another and another building began to burn from their top...Lurid flames roared and belched and licked their forked tongues into the air. Smoke ascended the sky in thick, black volumes and amid it all, the planes—now a dozen or more in number—still hummed and darted here and there with the agility of natural birds of the air."
Franklin then noted that before rushing home to ferry his family to safety, that he "locked the door, and descended to the foot of the steps...the side-walks were literally covered with burning turpentine balls. I knew all too well where they came from, and I knew all too well why every burning building first caught from the top...I paused and waited for an opportune time to escape. ‘Where oh where is our splendid fire department with its half dozen stations?’ I asked myself. ‘Is the city in conspiracy with the mob?’”
Indeed, the city was in conspiracy with the mob as evidenced by the fact that the local Grand Jury soon concluded that no whites would be indicted for murder, mayhem, or burglary AND that local Blacks had brought such death and wanton destruction of their property upon themselves.
While many Black Tulsans never returned to the city, Franklin did and set about representing survivors who remained in criminal and civil courts. Franklin successfully prevented the City of Tulsa's attempt to use eminent domain and zoning laws to usurp Black property rights and prevent the same from rebuilding.
Digressing, when Franklin rushed home to secure the safety of his family, among the survivors was his six year old son, John Hope Franklin—born in 1915 and named in honor of his father's mentor, Morehouse President John Hope. Attorney Franklin's son would go on to garner praise in his own right as a Fisk University and Harvard educated History professor most famous for his seminal historical tome, "From Slavery to Freedom."
Black College Feature
Each day during Black History Month, I will feature one of America's leading HBCUs.
Next up: Prairie View A&M University
History: Prairie View A&M University is the second oldest public institution of higher education in Texas, founded on August 14, 1876 through an act of the Reconstruction Era Texas legislature as the “Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas for Colored Youths.” The University’s original curriculum was designated by the Texas Legislature to be that of a “Normal School” for the preparation and training of Black teachers. Within two decades, the curriculum was expanded to include the arts and sciences, home economics, agriculture, mechanical arts and nursing.
In 1945, to avoid legal integration, the name of the school was changed from "Prairie View Normal and Industrial College" to Prairie View University, as the school was authorized by the legislature to offer the same courses offered at the University of Texas. In 1947, the Texas Legislature changed the name to Prairie View A&M College of Texas and provided that courses be offered in agriculture, the mechanics arts, engineering, and the natural sciences consistent with those offered at then all-white Texas A&M. Finally, in 1973, barely a decade removed from the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the name of the school was changed to Prairie View A&M University, and designated as an autonomous member of the Texas A&M University System.
Academics: Prairie View ranks second in the State of Texas in students graduating with STEM degrees, and is renowned for producing black engineers and architects.
Prairie View is ranked #20 among HBCUs by U.S. News & World Report. The University offers undergraduate and graduate degrees through its Colleges of Architecture, Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Engineering, Juvenile Justice and Psychology, Nursing, and Graduate Studies.
In 2004, Prairie View established the Undergraduate Medical Academy (UMA) which is designed to prepare academically talented undergraduate students for success in medical school.The University also houses a highly selective Honors Program.
In 2010 and in 2015, Prairie View won the Honda Campus All- Star Challenge (Quiz Bowl) National Championship.
Motto: "Prairie View Produces Productive People"
Mascot: Panthers
Colors: Purple and Gold
Athletics: Over the past decade, Prairie View has enjoyed a resurgence of its football program that was once among the top HBCUs during the segregation era and regularly produced professional athletes. The University competes in the Southwestern Athletics Conference (SWAC) in men's and women's sports.
Famous Alumni/Figures: Frederick Douglass Patterson, former Tuskegee University President and Founder of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), Prairie View President Ruth Brown Simmons, first Black president of an Ivy League school--Brown Univ.; Army Lt. General (Ret) Julius Becton, past Director of FEMA, Admiral (Ret) David Brewer, retired Superintendent of the LA Unified Schools District, Lt. Gen. (Ret) Calvin Waller; Dr. Sidney McPhee, President of Middle Tennessee State University; U.S. Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, former U.S. Rep. Craig Washington, Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins; actor Mr. T (real name Laurence Tauread--Rocky III, the A-Team) Rap DJ Premier (Christopher Edward Martin), Terri Ellis, member of R&B super-group En Vogue, jazz trumpeter Clora Bryant; NFL Hall of Famer Ken Houston, former NFL star Jim Mitchell, former NFL star Alvin Reed, former NFL star Clem Daniels, former NFL star Otis Taylor; NBA Hall of Famer Cello Beaty, former WNBA star and current USC Women's Basketball Coach Cynthia Cooper, former MLB star Cecil Cooper.
Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point—have a wonderful weekend!
I always look forward to you Friday Flashpoints Mr. Hobbs. I especially love the “ young Hobbs” stories.
Your genius is amazing. You untangle history and help bring clarity to sometimes muddled "facts!"