HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO A GUY THAT'S FASCINATING TO KNOW!

By Edwin Cooney

My friend Irwin was born on Wednesday,  May 24th, 1967 in Chicago, the son of a woman who, at the time, was working for Chicago's mayor, Richard J. Daley.

He was born totally blind but intellectually both curious and brilliant. His mother moved him and his siblings to Southern California a couple of years later.

As a very young student, Irwin was fascinated by politics, the civil rights movement and religious doctrine. As an early teen, he became a Black Muslim. As a young adult, he actually moved briefly to Saudi Arabia. Fortunately for his American friends, the rigors of the Muslim faith were too much for him so he was allowed to return six months later to Southern California.

Like many young people, Irwin was more interested in both drama and romance than he was in building a strong nuclear family. Irwin, like Henry the Eighth, has had six wives, but the women he has chosen were obviously fascinated with his unpredictability, intelligence, and charm.

Irwin has a wonderful capacity to make anyone he's talking to feel that they are the center of his attention. He always remembers what a person thought, said, worried and wondered about. Throughout almost every conversation, one often senses Irwin's concern for their ultimate well-being! His accent is a little like the late Dr. Martin Luther King’s and it reflects his genuine sincerity for people’s welfare.

Professionally, Irwin would like to have been a news reporter or political commentator, but he came to see that his lack of mobility prevented him from chasing those he needed to interview for a prospective story. Newspaper editors don't hire immobile reporters! 

For a student of history like me, there's something amazing about some of the celebrities with whom he's been fascinated over the years. They include Jim Jones of deadly Kool-Aid fame, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Angela Davis, the proud and unapologetic Marxist, his past and revised view of Abraham Lincoln, and his wonderful tolerance for friends of differing political and religious faiths. (Oh, yeah — I’ve promised never to tell anyone whom he, out of romantic love, didn't vote for in 2008 ! He made up for it in 2012, though!)

He is a calm and reflective middle-aged man these days with a wife he loves and admires and a young son toward whom he's almost an apostle! If you're curious as to his religious affiliation today, you'll have to ask him, but it isn't even close to being what it once was.

I met Irwin on a telephone message and chat exchange and we have been friends since the spring of 2001. However, we've never met. It might — might —  be best if we never do, because our friendship is almost perfect! I'll be damned if it could ever be better!

Of course, this will sound egotistical (and it is, I suppose), but his greatest ongoing gift to me is his continuously expressed personal appreciation. This degree of regard, I’m sure, goes for others as well!

Happy Birthday, Irwin!  You are in the very top ranks of the very best people I regard as friends!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY        

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS THAT JUST MIGHT MATTER

By Edwin Cooney

This is an effort to pose a few questions that might be asked of the presidential candidates which would be helpful to voters in determining who they might vote for while they listen to the June and September presidential debates. I've decided to present them as though both men were sitting in front of me. Hopefully, one or two of these questions will dig below the surface of what each candidate hopes to put forward.

President Biden: A year or so ago you sent Vice President Kamala Harris down to Texas to monitor and make suggestions about the immigration crisis. At that time, you indicated that Vice President Harris was in charge of monitoring the immigration crisis. The public has seen little that’s positive from the Vice President insofar as the immigration situation is concerned. What resources and authority did you send down with her to help her with her assignment? You appear to have let her hang out to dry.

President Trump: Although as president you are the most powerful head of state on earth, what restraints does our constitution legitimately put on your executive authority?

President Biden: Please review for the American people the steps you took back in late 2021 when you withdrew American forces from Afghanistan.

President Trump: Please name a democratic leader now living for whom you have some respect or even regard?

President Biden: What constitutes the level of satisfaction and disappointment you're experiencing as you handle the crisis between the Israeli government and Palestinian sympathizers?

President Trump: Throughout your first term as you sought to do away with Obamacare, you promised a working alternative. However, you've never produced one. What steps do you plan to take to improve healthcare should you be re-elected?

President Biden: What is at the heart of our current immigration problem and what ought we to do to relieve the situation?

President Trump: On countless occasions throughout your first term, you encouraged your supporters to “believe that Hillary Clinton ought to be locked up.” However, neither you nor your attorneys general achieved that prospect. Why not?

President Biden: Is it your goal to reinstate the right to an abortion or is President Trump right that it all ought to be left up to the states?

President Trump: When do you expect Mexico to pay for the wall that we’re guessing you are still anxious to complete?

President Biden: Tell us why Vice President Harris ought to be re-nominated!

President Trump: Why do both Vladimir Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping prefer your election over that of President Biden? Furthermore, how do you compare the Christian values expressed by most of your supporters with those of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping?

President Biden: Why are the charges against President Trump about justice rather than merely about politics?

President Trump: How hard are you going to work to see that former Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley is convicted of and executed for treason?

President Biden: Explain to the public how and why liberalism differs from socialism.

President Trump: You’ve lately described yourself as a “political prisoner” rather than as a citizen answerable to a criminal indictment that by tradition considers you “innocent until proven guilty”? How does your insistence on that state of affairs differ from that which was once claimed by Black Panther leaders of the late sixties and early seventies?

Presidents Biden and Trump: Compare and contrast, please, the difference between political expediency and social justice.

Again, to you both: When may most Americans begin expecting a return to political civility on the part of their political leaders? How do each of you plan to bring that civility about? 

I end this with a bit of trivia: when were the last two times that presidents faced each other in a national election?

As the late great Casey Stengel used to say: "You can look it up!"

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY 

WHAT SAY YOU, PLEASE?

By Edwin Cooney

I've been going to stores,, bus stations and bus stops, doctors appointments, barber shops, and so on practically all of my 78 plus years. However, last Wednesday, May 8th, I ran into an unexpected buzzsaw.

My 9 a.m. doctor appointment last Wednesday got bumpy the instant I stepped into the interoffice at my doctor’s office. As usual, I was greeted by an aide who asked me to walk over to the scale to get weighed prior to the upcoming exam. I suggested that I would take her arm for guidance and she immediately said I couldn't do that because she doesn't like to be touched. Normally, when a lady or anyone else doesn't want to be touched, that both begins and ends the legitimate sense of personal space. To me, however, touching was an essential part of having a "sighted guide" which has been a part of my travel experience since my teens. Hence, my reaction was defensive as to my need to navigate smoothly through a site which I didn't know well.

“Sighted guide” requires the guide to allow the sight-impaired person to lightly take hold of the guide's arm just above the elbow. As the guide steps along, one can easily sense where the guide is walking and stepping. That enables the guided person to easily detect where the other person is going. If one touches the lower arm or the hand, the feedback of the above elbow contact is lessened by indirection. In my shock, I asserted that I've never been treated so badly by a “professional person” in all of my nearly 79 years of travel. This lady more or less pushed me toward the scale. When I get weighed I usually ask the assistant to hold my jacket containing my change and/or other items so they won't affect the result. This lady would have no part of doing that. So, I proceeded to drop my jacket and cane on the floor beside the scale. Then a gentleman, came alongside and introduced himself as a nurse. He helped me gather my cane and jacket, but when I sought his assistance into the doctor's office he also insisted that he didn't want to be touched either! As you might imagine, I was frustrated all over again. Thus my attitude was petulant toward him as he put forth the medical questions that are common prior to a physical  examination.

My interview and examination with the doctor went as usual, but I let her know that if this kind of reception continues, I may be looking for another doctor.

Hence, I ask you: is it understandable that I was frustrated? Should those of us with disabilities be more prepared to alter our expectations when dealing with a stranger or should we be more “sensitive” to the anxieties of a public that's invariably at sea as to how to relate to us? These two employees expected not to be in any way harassed or made uncomfortable during their hours of employment. Might this be a reasonable labor issue?

Now that I've been dipped into this chilly sea of uncertainty without swimming lessons, I'll re-think and adjust.

However, re-thinking and adjusting might well be easier with your thoughts.

Whether I deserve a scolding or a reassuring hug is up to you, but I'll be ready for either or both!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY