The Shadow of Death...
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"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil..." The 23rd Psalms
Before I went to bed last night, I received a message from an old friend from my childhood days in Maryland which informed that another friend of ours from back in the day, one who I will not name out of respect for his privacy and his family, has been moved to hospice care and is not expected to live much longer despite only being 52 years old.
Then, I awoke this morning to learn that a friend from my childhood days in Florida, Abraham Fisher, has passed away at the age of 51.
RIP, Abraham Fisher…
Fisher, a former lineman for rival Rickards High School (Class of ‘89) and a Masonic Brother of mine as well, was a gentle giant; kind, thoughtful, but fierce and fiercely loyal to those he loved.
Last, when I opened my Facebook Memory app this morning, I noticed that it has been five years since Tara Jones, a Spelman Sister of mine, passed away.
Ol' Hobbs (background), caught in a selfie with my Spelman Sister Tara Jones and Morehouse Brother Mark McGruder circa October of 2017. Tara died seven months later…
Tara's death troubled me greatly back then because I had just enjoyed talking and dancing with her during SpelHouse Homecoming a few months earlier with no clue that would be the last time we conversed.
RIP, Tara Jones…
God willing, I will be 51 years old in 11 days and while grateful for this life and its vicissitudes, both good and bad, I admit that it seems as if bad news, specifically death and dying, is a constant companion these days. Already this year, I have attended eight funerals of blood kin, close friends, Frat Brothers, and mentors, as the dearly departed include folks younger, the same age, and my parents age.
To inject a bit of morbid humor, I ran into another childhood friend of mine, Tawanda Carter Odom, on FAMU's campus earlier this spring and she laughingly said that she told her husband that she dreads seeing my Facebook posts and learning that yet another friend or mentor of ours has died. I laughingly clapped back that I understood, because I hate having to write so many "rest in peace" updates seemingly each week.
Tawanda Carter Odom, FAMU High Class of ‘91, and me at the Kappa Probate Show this past March…
But I understand, like many pastors have always taught from the Bible, that “man born of a woman is of a few days" in general, and ranging from "three score and 10 or four score years" (70 to 80) if fortunate. And yes, while many of you who read today's post may age well into your 90’s or beyond, the main idea, like my old Deacon Willie Green used to sing at New Salem MB Church, is that "time is winding up" and due to that reality, it is important for each of us to enjoy each day like it is our last day—because it very well could be...
Racism and Ron DeSantis
So, nearly 51 years of living and working in America makes me pretty much an expert on knowing who is, or is not, a racist and from the very first, when I heard Ron DeSantis declare that he hoped that Andrew Gillum didn't "monkey it up" back in 2018, I knew exactly who and what he was, which was (and remains) a racist!
Well, ABC News released audio tapes this past weekend that confirm what many of us already knew about DeSantis, Florida's Governor who is planning to run for the Republican nomination for President next year.
The tapes are from a 2018 debate prep session where DeSantis refused to recognize, much less concede, that his racist comments, which included an almost non stop derision of Gillum for being "soft on crime" while Mayor of Tallahassee, were problematic.
Andrew Gillum, a Florida A&M University graduate, easily outclassed Ron DeSantis, a Yale and Harvard Law graduate, during their debates in 2018…
The two curious realities of DeSantis' racist rhetoric are that in the five years since he made those remarks about Gillum, crime, specifically murder, has gotten worse under Tallahassee's white Democratic Mayor, John Dailey. And yet, you never hear DeSantis criticizing him despite many of those violent crimes taking place within miles of the governor's mansion downtown.
Second, after reading the ABC News article, it boggled my WHOLE mind to learn that U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla), of ALL people, was the one warning DeSantis about the real trouble that he was facing about racism in that race! Who would have thought that Gaetz, long under suspicion for having sex with underage girls, had any semblance of a conscience with regards to race?
Gaetz and DeSantis
Mr. Gillum, after noting how Neo-Nazis were assisting the DeSantis campaign, famously said during one debate, "Now, I'm not calling Mr. DeSantis a racist, I'm simply saying the racists believe he's a racist…" Well, I will take it there—DeSantis IS a racist because he continues to willingly pander to racists in his policies, such is why he is not the alternative to Donald Trump that his racism denying Republican supporters so desperately want him to be....
Putin puts on for Victory Day
No European nation suffered more from Adolf Hitler's Nazi Armed Forces than the Soviet Union, a nation that the German dictator came close to conquering in 1941 until the bitter Russian winter set in—and Russian armed forces began a counter offensive that ultimately led to their capture of Berlin in April of 1945.
A Soviet Red Army soldier unfurls the sickle and hammer flag over the German Reichstag in Berlin circa May 1945..
Since then the former Soviet Union, now Russia, has celebrated its victory over Germany each May with a dazzling display of weapons and soldiers parading in Red Square.
Earlier today, Russian Dictator Vladimir Putin sat in the review box for another year before launching into a 10-minute speech that, for the second year, listed grievances against Ukraine and her Western allies, including the United States.
What troubles me is Putin's dialectical mendacity, one in which he links his invasion of Ukraine to Russia's long ago fight to expel the Nazi German invaders. Contrary to his beliefs, neither Ukraine nor the United States is “pursuing the dissolution and the destruction of (Russia).”
The Russian Army is being soundly beaten by an undermanned, but well equipped, Ukrainian military…
No, Putin is merely experiencing what Adolf Hitler and every other bully in history soon learned, which is that when a people join together to fight back against a tyrannical bully, that the bully, in time, will be defeated.
Mass Murder
As I began today's blog waxing philosophically about death, I will end on the same subject, this time being the latest mass murder scene in Allen, Texas where a Neo-Nazi gunman killed eight people and injured seven others before he was killed by an off-duty police officer.
Per usual, the gunman used an AR-15 rifle that inflicts maximum carnage in short order. Per usual, men, women, and children were among the dead and injured, with one first responder saying he went to check on a woman who was kneeling against a wall, only to turn her around and notice that she had no face.
I've often wondered whether America would finally stand up to the NRA and the gun nuts in the GOP if they could see what an AR-15 does to human flesh. I've had the misfortune of seeing many autopsy photos of men, women, and yes, children who were shot at close range, and trust you, me, when I tell you that those images haunt me to this very moment—and inform my position that guns MUST be regulated.
But then again, it's not the pictures of the dead, per se, that inform my politics on this matter, rather, it's that I am a civilized human being, with a good heart, who knows that unfettered gun access is wrong and deadly! That makes me different from the GOP gun nuts, those who talk Jesus and extend “thoughts and prayers” in public, but are hot for the Devil and his tools, including automatic weapons, in private.
Lest we forget...