Bill Cosby on the Zimmerman-Martin Case
I have resisted writing about this case on so many counts. Race, Handguns, the Florida law, the non-arrest, the arrest, the charges, the investigation, the grand jury, the no-grand jury, the special prosecutor, the media…………….
Yes. I have formed an opinion on this case based on what I know through the dozens of articles I’ve read. But, actor, comedian Bill Cosby sheds a different light on the matter.
The following was published by the CNN Wire Staff on Sunday, April 15, 2012.
(CNN) — The race of Florida teen Trayvon Martin had less to do with his death than the fact that the neighborhood watch volunteer who killed him was carrying a gun, comedian Bill Cosby told CNN in an interview that aired Sunday.
Martin, 17, was shot dead in February while walking back from a convenience store to his father’s Sanford home. The man who admitted shooting him, George Zimmerman, told authorities that he did so in self-defense. Martin’s family contends Zimmerman racially profiled the teen. Zimmerman was detained last week and charged with second-degree murder.
Known for his stand-up routines, movies and as the man behind the breakthrough 1980s sit-com “The Cosby Show,” Cosby regularly weighs in on social and racial issues.
“It doesn’t make any difference if he’s racist or not racist,” Cosby said on “State of the Union.” “If he’s scared to death and not a racist, it’s still a confrontational provoking of something” when a person has a gun on them.
Gun violence is personal to Cosby, one of the most successful African-American comedians and entertainers of his generation. His and wife Camille’s only son, Ennis, was shot and killed while changing a tire off a Southern California freeway in 1997. Michael Markhasev, a Ukrainian-born immigrant, was convicted the next year of killing Ennis Cosby during an attempted robbery.
Cosby said that he “used to have a gun,” which he bought to “protect my family.” He insists he has nothing against people having firearms in their homes to protect against intruders, but said he believes that being on the streets with a gun changes some people, making them bolder and more dangerous.
“When a person has a gun, sometimes their mind clicks that this thing … will win arguments and straighten people out,” he said.
Cosby did not mention Zimmerman by name during his CNN interview. But he did allude to key facts of the case, like how Zimmerman called 911 to report what he called a “suspicious” person in his neighborhood.
The dispatcher told him police were on their way and not to follow the person, who ended up being Martin. But Zimmerman apparently did pursue him. The pair got into a confrontation and Zimmerman ended up shooting Martin.
“When you tell me that you’re going to protect the neighborhood that I live in, I don’t want you to have a gun,” Cosby said. “I want you to be able to see something, report it and get out of the way.”
Til we meet again.
FB 04/16/12
WOW………….No Wonder
Have you ever said “If those darn foreigners are going to live and work in our country, then by gosh, they should learn to speak English.” I say it all the time, but usually, my words are not suitable for print. And they are spoken with a lot of anger.
If a person moves to another country, why would they not want to learn the local language? Start with simple words like Food, Hotel, Taxi, and Bathroom. Work up into sentences. And, learn to live by their culture. Afterall, isn’t culture the main reason you moved there. What the heck are you thinking? IT’S NOT YOUR COUNTRY!
Calm down, Fred. Count to Ten. That isn’t the topic today. Whew!
I studied Spanish in the Fifties, and French in the Sixties. Don’t remember much of either. Never had a reason to use them, so they just sort of faded from my memory. Both seemed to be fairly easy to learn. Of course, I was quite a bit younger then. Actually, over fifty years younger. Holy Crap. That’s a half Century. Jeeeezzzz!
As native Americans, we started speaking American English about the age of two. Our parents started teaching diction, and pronunciation. We started to read. We learned how to write (print) our name, address, and phone number. A little squiggly perhaps, with a letter or number backwards.
Then, we enter school. And for the next 12 years we learn vowels, consonants, verbs, adjectives, nouns, pronouns, uppercase, lowercase, first person, past tense, spelling, diagrams, grammar, proper names, and cursive writing. The list goes on and on. American English is a difficult language to master.
Wow…..No wonder Immigrants continue to speak their native language. American English is tough. Reading and writing it is one thing, but speaking it is entirely different. If you don’t think so…….read on.
R-E-A-D. : I have read the book. I need to read the book. The cover of the book is red. 1st two look the same, but have different meanings. 2nd two sound the same, but have different meanings. Huh?
C-O-M-B vs T-O-M-B: Should sound the same. Right? Wrong!
B-A-T-T-E-R-Y: A device to power your cars and portable devices. Also, the same word, same spelling, and same sound means a unit of artillery used by the military.
T-H-R-O-U-G-H: In at one end and out the other is a preposition. But T-H-R-U, means the same thing, but is a preposition, verb, or adjective.
What about Who, and Whom. English scholars have argued this one for centuries. Still no definitive answer.
Are you confused yet? Of course not. You have been reading, writing, and speaking American English your entire life. But your new next door neighbor that recently moved here from Finland hasn’t a clue.
Hold onto your hat………it gets worse.
Conjugation of verbs: The past tense of “buy” is “bought”, and the past tense of “sell” is “sold”, but neither “buyed” nor “selled” are real words?
Even worse: take an adjective and form its “-ness” quality. As in, deriving “swiftness” from “swift”. This process is as irregular as you can get. “Strong” doesn’t become “strongness”, it becomes “strength”, even though its opposite, “weak”, does become “weakness”. “High” becomes “height”, and if you mess up and say “highness” instead, it sounds like you are addressing the Queen of England.
The irregularities, and similarities, in American English continue on and on in a very confusing manner. So, to all the non-English speaking people that may be reading this Blog, I want to sincerely ………………
“WAIT, WAIT, WAIT” “What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m just trying to apologize for…………”
“Apologize! For what? If they don’t already know English, why would they be reading your Blog?”
“Oh yeah. I didn’t think about that.”
“Dumbass. I can’t believe you are the other half of this personality.”
“Hey, you don’t have to call me names. I was just trying to apologize for America, the same way that Barack Obama did.”
“You really are a Dumbass.”
Til we meet again.
FB 04/15/12
Remembering Easter Sunday
Easter Sunday. The unofficial first day of Spring. Christians all over the world dress up in their newest and brightest outfits to join their friends and family at their favorite places of worship. Those that don’t normally attend church on Sundays, make an additional effort to be there on Easter.
When I was a kid, everyone dressed in their “Sunday go-to-meeting clothes”. The Ladies, in newly purchased outfits of long flowing pastel and lace dresses. Heads adorned with a new matching hat, with veil, of course. High heeled, buttoned shoes of the same color. Some of the older ladies would even carry a parasol to match. The Gentlemen in light colored suits, white dress shirt, brightly colored tie, highly shined shoes, and either wearing, or carrying a hat. Their children were dressed to the “nines”.
I think Irving Berlin said it best in the song “Easter Parade”.
“In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it,
You’ll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade.
I’ll be all in clover and when they look you over,
I’ll be the proudest fellow in the Easter parade.
On the avenue, fifth avenue, the photographers will snap us,
And you’ll find that you’re in the rotogravure.
Oh, I could write a sonnet about your Easter bonnet,
And of the girl I’m taking to the Easter parade.”
It was quite a sight to see, as they paraded along the sidewalks, or across the parking lots. They would stand outside the church for a few minutes, so that every passerby could see how “dandy” they looked. Smiling faces, bright attitudes, well mannered, and hoping the Sermon wouldn’t last too long. Need to get home, and get back into “normal” clothes. Hypocritical …Yes. Superficial …Yes. But beautiful, just the same.
For the Kids. Easter Sunday is a day of candy and hunting eggs. In the days leading up to Easter. Mom and the kids go to the market to buy dozens of eggs. Bring ’em home. Hardboil ’em. Let ’em cool. Now they are ready for color. What fun that was. Remember all the different colors? Mostly pastels. And every child (and adults) tried to make the fanciest one. You could write on them with that little grease pencil, that never did work quite right. You were supposed to use that funny looking wire egg holder to dip the eggs in color. That never worked any better than the grease pencil did. If you spilled the coloring on the table, or countertop, Mom wouldn’t get angry. She’d just say “that’s OK, it’ll wash right off” (and it didn’t). And the next day at school all the kids would have stained hands and fingernails. Those colored hands were worn with pride, as if they were a trophy, or a medal.
On Easter morning it was brightly colored baskets filled with giant chocolate bunnies, marshmallow peeps, jelly beans, peanut butter eggs, and a couple of colored hardboiled eggs with your name on them. If you were lucky, and Peter Cottontail remembered, you might even find my favorite…….Popcorn Balls. Popcorn shaped into balls with a sweet sugary substance to hold them together, and then wrapped in colorful cellophane. Remember? The bottom of the basket had that same colored cellophane shredded, and they called it “grass”. All the jelly beans would fall thru the “grass”, and end up in the very bottom of the basket. You retrieve the jelly beans by carefully removing the “grass” from the basket and replacing. Much to Mothers dismay, she finds the “grass” all over the house for the next six months. Not unlike the Christmas tree “icicles” that are found nearly everywhere for months. Just how does it do that?
The Easter Egg Hunt. In the afternoon, shortly after church, the hunt for Easter eggs commences. Mom and Dad have hidden colored eggs under the bushes out front, or behind the car tire in the driveway, or placed in the fork of the young trees in the backyard. You and your siblings, and maybe a few neighborhood kids, have to find them. Laughter, and giggling, and squealing abounds. The kid who gathers the most eggs wins a prize. (I sure hope it’s that hollow chocolate rabbit that I saw in the kitchen pantry).
Maybe your local community is sponsoring an Easter egg hunt. Dozens of kids start at the same time to find the little morsels hidden all over the local park. If you’re lucky enough, you may find an egg with a number, or letter on it. Thereby winning a shiny new Silver Dollar, or a coupon for a free milkshake, or sundae, at the local Soda Fountain.
Wow! Those were the days, my friends.
As adults, we all know that this isn’t the real reason for Easter Sunday. If it weren’t for Jesus Christ, and his resurrection, we, as the human race may not have survived
For GOD so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. — John 3:16 …
GOD bless all of you.
Til we meet again.
FB 04/08/12
UnderThisOldMansHat 