CATCHING UP!

By Edwin Cooney

Just because one goes on what might be called a "cyber retreat" doesn’t, of course, mean that the world stops turning!  While the cat’s away…the world does indeed play!

Three events, two of them most disappointing and one I believe we ought to celebrate, have occurred.

First, there’s the ongoing saga of police/public hostilities: Just as you and I are sufficiently outraged by police brutalities in Ferguson, Missouri, Staten Island, New York, Cleveland, Ohio, and Los Angeles, California, two policemen  are murdered  while sitting in their police car by an obviously troubled black man.  Understandably the public is outraged again.  For most of us, nothing that Darren Wilson or Daniel Pantaleo did to Michael Brown or Eric Garner justifies what was done to Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu!  It’s my conclusion that the reason for much of our confusion and subsequent conflict is due to the lies we tell ourselves regarding our past and the denial of the low esteem with which we regard some of our fellow Americans.  As I see it, both our perspectives and our judgments are created by our prejudices and our fears.  I’ll be writing more about this as time goes on.

The second news story that particularly caught my attention was the revelations about actor and comedian Bill Cosby’s alleged sexual advances toward women he supposedly drugged before raping them. It appears that whatever happens, Mr. Cosby is likely to have just begun “paying the piper” as they say.  He’s already resigned his seat on Temple University's Board of Trustees and NBC has already canceled his scheduled television special.  For me, Bill Cosby will always be the little boy he depicted in his early comedy routines. Call it denial, if you will, but as many of you know, the enjoyment of almost all forms of artistry is the suspension of reality.  I can’t imagine what he had to say to his wife and all of the others who love him best. I can’t imagine voting for him as a candidate for public office, but if his opponent happened to be, say, David Duke, he’d get my vote.  As to whether or not he ought to be criminally punished or sued in civil court, I say bring forth the evidence and “let the devil take the hindmost!”

Finally, President Obama’s decision to reopen diplomatic relations with Cuba is very much overdue regardless of whom it displeases.   During Fidel Castro’s early days we were right to react firmly to Castro’s political romance with Nikita Khrushchev.  Up until the late seventies or early eighties, recognizing the Cuban government may well have been militarily, and politically risky.  The Castro regime has had 55 years to vent over early 20th Century American arrogance and chauvinism.  Tom Marshall, Woodrow Wilson’s Indiana-born vice president, used to say that what America needed most was a good five-cent cigar.  I’ll settle, thank you very much, for a high quality Havana cigar!  The advantages of this move for both sides will be found in tomorrow’s details and I’m convinced will  be much more powerful than the conflict of the past 53 years.

My looking glass forecasts a gratifying 2015 even as a Republican congress strives to stultify President Obama.  Sure, there will be moments of discouragement and perhaps even sorrow.  Still, every year offers us once again the opportunity to get more things right!  Does any entity other than time offer us a better deal than that?  If so, tell me what it is and I’ll buy you a ticket  to it!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY