Running off at the Android...
Another April day, another mass shooting in America, this time in Brooklyn, New York on a subway during morning rush hour traffic. NYC Mayor Eric Adams has identified Frank R. James, 62, as a suspect —and a manhunt is in full effect.
Frank R. James is a person of interest in the Brooklyn subway shootings…
I still cannot understand what leads one human being to believe that shooting innocent victims is ever ok? Now, I fully understand that mental illness is a major problem that too many people refuse to treat, but the emotional part of me that’s skeptical still feels that it's one thing for a melancholic man to commit suicide, and something altogether different (and more horrific) when melancholic men kill innocents who have no clue about their inner struggles!
While praying for the victims, I also pray that authorities will bring whoever did this to swift justice…
Bloody April
There's something about April...
Yesterday's mass shooting in Brooklyn reminded me that this month, from a historical standpoint, has been a bloody mess!
Lest we forget that it was an April morning in 1861, the 12th to be precise, when Confederate soldiers under the command of General Pierre Beauregard fired upon Fort Sumter and by so doing, started the bloodiest (and anything but civil) war in American history…
It was an April evening four years later when President Abraham Lincoln, only days removed from a Union victory in said Civil War, became the first president killed in office when John Wilkes Booth fired a single shot into the back of his head at the Ford's Theater…
A little over 100 years later, in April of 1968, riots erupted across America after Dr. Martin Luther King was shot and killed on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee…
In April of 1995, 168 men, women, and small children died in a terror attack implemented by Timothy McVeigh, a man who chose April 19th to bomb the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City because it coincided with the date two years earlier when federal agents raided the Branch Davidians compound in Waco, Texas—a raid that led to 86 deaths including the Davidians leader, David Koresh…
The Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building after Timothy Mcveigh's bomb exploded.
April was also the month in which the self-styled "trench coat mafia," consisting of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, killed a number of their fellow students at Columbine High School in Colorado…
On a cold April morning in 2007, Seng Hui Choi killed many of his fellow coeds at Virginia Tech and, not to be outdone, it was six Aprils later when home grown terrorists set off a bomb at the Boston Marathon that killed several participants!
Indeed, April often has been a month in which indescribable horrors have been inflicted by wicked souls and yet, there is seemingly no remedy to the madness that leads to such indiscriminate and wanton violence...
Republicans disrespect a judicial legend
Seven years ago, I was standing in line at the downtown Bank of America in Tallahassee when none other than the Honorable Joseph Hatchett, the first Black man to serve on the Florida Supreme Court (who later became a Federal judge), tapped me on the shoulder and asked "what is Ol' Hobbs going to be writing about today?" Admittedly, I got light headed because while I certainly knew him, I was blown away that such a legend knew me! After telling me to keep up my good work, he graciously posed for this picture, one that I will treasure forever.
Recently, Florida's two Republican Senators (Marco Rubio and Rick Scott) proposed naming Tallahassee's Federal Courthouse to honor Judge Hatchett, and despite having support from the majority of the Florida congressional delegation, a group of simple-minded conservative Republicans, led by Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, moved to block the two-thirds majority necessary to pass the measure. While most of the "no" voters refused to explain "why," at least Rep. Clyde's racist self had the guts to claim that he was still upset that Hatchett had ruled against student led school prayer in a 1999 case originating in Jacksonville.
Whatever…
Part of my enduring frustration with being a Black man in America, one who handled cases in the very building that should now bear Judge Hatchett's name, is that some of my fellow Americans proudly honor slave owners like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson (Jacksonville), and Robert E. Lee, while publicly dishonoring the descendants of the enslaved like Judge Hatchett, a man who matriculated at Florida A&M University during the Jim Crow era, was forced to take the Bar exam at a separate hotel in 1959 because of Jim Crow, and one who rose to the heights of the legal profession despite such racial barriers.
What's worse is realizing that men and women who should have enough common sense to laud those worthy of such honorifics, are too petulant and petty to place their own philosophical persuasions aside to recognize true greatness! Here's hoping that at another time and with another Congress, that the 2/3rds majority necessary to create the Judge Joseph W. Hatchett Federal Courthouse comes to fruition.
2022 #HCASC Quiz Bowl Champions
Congratulations to Morehouse College and Coach Robert Myrick on winning the 2022 Honda Campus All Star Challenge National Championship—and a $75k grant from American Honda Motors!!!!
The Men of Morehouse won the program's 5th National Championship—the first since 2006—and second only to Florida A&M's eight championships!
The Hobbservation Point acknowledges the outstanding work of Brothers Andre Brown, Steven Agyepong, Isaiah Thompson, Kendall Wood, and Coach Robert Myrick. Kudos, too, to Brother Myrick on winning HCASC Coach of the Year—and to Brother Thompson for earning a spot on the All-Star team! Those two awards add an additional $2k a piece, which runs Morehouse's total winnings this year to $79k!
Congrats, young Brothers!
Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point—have a wonderful Wednesday.
On Point!!