Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring

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"Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history." Dr. Carter G. Woodson, legendary historian and activist

***Count me among those ECSTATIC about the breaking news that United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring!

The Hon. Stephen Breyer

Breyer, 83, has served since being appointed by former President Bill Clinton in 1994 and still possesses a fecund mind, but the truth is that his pending retirement will allow President Joe Biden a chance to appoint a progressive; here's betting that a Black woman, at long last, will get the nod! 

Stay tuned...

***On the opposite end of the spectrum, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced yesterday that she will run for reelection in 2022. Pelosi, 81, also still possesses a fecund mind and a passion for politics and, unlike the Supreme Court seat, when she finally steps down, her Democratic district will send another Democrat to Washington, thus making her retirement far less necessary than Justice Breyer's!

***Yes, I am aware that President Biden was caught on a hot mic calling Fox News reporter Peter Doocy a "stupid son of a bitch" during an event at the White House earlier this week and yes, I do believe that his comments were in poor taste.

Yes, I also know that former President Donald Trump called folks that (and worse) seemingly on a daily basis and, yes, I, too, have been known to turn a cuss phrase (or several) in my private settings. 

President Joe Biden was wide open on the open mic!

But that's private; I have never cursed out a judge, an editor, or a student during my legal, writing, or teaching careers because there's a time and place for everything under the sun. Plus, I would be a hypocrite for calling Trump out on his deplorable official conduct while sitting silent when Biden did the same; thus, my sincere hope that the president rejects his predecessor's ways by being civil in his dealings with the press.

***I shook my head this morning while reading that Covid has rocked the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department to the tune of 2,500 personnel out sick or quarantining due to the coronavirus! I would LOVE to learn how many of those sick or in quarantine are fully vaccinated; my hunch is that many of these officers, being the right wing talk radio listeners that I know a great deal of them to be, are the non-vaxxed cavalier types that also refuse to mask up and wash their hands...

***Kudos to David "Big Papi" Ortiz, on being selected to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot.

But I have major beef that neither Barry Bonds nor Roger Clemens were selected on their final try with the BWA; Bonds, arguably the greatest slugger of all time, and Clemens, one of the greatest pitchers of all time, have been dogged by allegations of using performance enhancing drugs. 

Bonds (l) and Ortiz

My beef stems from the fact that former Commissioner Bud Selig is in the Hall and he presided during the so-called "steroids era" and did little to curtail the practice. I also have beef that the BWA is acting like the Hall is a place for paragons of virtue, as players fraught with all sorts of personal failures, from racism, to alcohol abuse and the like, are enshrined in Cooperstown. If I had my druthers, not only would Bonds and Clemens be enshrined, but Pete Rose, too (as we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God).

In Memoriam

Two years ago today, the great Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others perished in a helicopter crash in California. I was traveling back from Atlanta that day when I got the news and, deeply saddened, pulled over at a rest stop and penned the following Facebook post:"Brothers, it is ok to be 'shook,' 'upset,' 'choked up,' 'sad,' 'despondent,' 'disconsolate,' or even reduced to tears about the death of the great Kobe Bryant, his little girl Gianna, and seven other souls earlier today. 

As I grow older, I finally understand why in the classic film Menace II Society, the character Pernell (Glenn Plummer), one who was serving life without parole, told his mentee Caine (Tyrin Turner) to look after his 5-year-old son, saying: 'teach him better than I taught you...teach him the way we grew up was BS.'

Indeed, all of the 'real men don't cry,' or 'real men only express one emotion—anger' was some BS. Process your pain the best that you can, Brothers, because for many of us, particularly involved fathers who love their little girls like Kobe loved his, this tragedy hurts really bad...”

Lest we forget!

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