Poor Bill Cosby ... he may have stayed too long at the Fair...

Watched the Night Line interview last night of the meltdown of a man we've all admired for so long. He did his awkward rambling boorish lecture before an audience in St. Louis -- an audience of poor black folks he's been verbally chastising publicly to the embarrassment of so many. I wanted to turn off the power -- actually did mute the remote several times as I watched him in an unbelievable show of insensivity -- stupidity! He's a man out of contact with himself as well as the rest of us, I believe. I can imagine that his wife and daughters are cringing in horror at the sad spectable he's become. Unfortunately, his celebrity lends weight to his words as it lends power to the political conservatives who preach the old "pull yourselves up by your bootstraps" mantra to those poor souls without boots. I can see in my mind's eye the likes of Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, Armstrong Williams, et al, rubbing their hands together in absolute glee! How tragic!

But I felt compassion for him before it ended (unexpectedly) and so wanted him to abandon the rest of his tour, one that will bring him to Detroit, Cleveland, Gary, and other innercity hot spots where he will preach to those living in the projects and on the margins of society about the virtues of coming together to confront their "sins" and "turn in their children to the authorities instead of turning a blind eye to the evils" of what he sees as "self-inflicted poverty and shame." How he could not be aware of the complexity of the issues he so blithely prescribes for is baffling. His life of relative ease and exposure to the thinking of the mental health professionals he surrounded himself with in the old Cosby show days should have produced more than the simplistic old bastard showing off his ignorance before a puzzled audience of just plain poor folks -- and a national audience that deserved more from an old and admired friend.

How I wish dear Camille Cosby could reel in her foolish husband, the old reprobate with a checkered past of his own, apply a tight gag over his foul mouth, and tie him to his rocking chair before someone does it for her!

He was the prime example of the old adage that money can't buy everything.


Photo: Newspaper pic of football great Jim Brown, Pat Meyers, comic Bill Cosby (very young Coz), Cleo Jackson, Muhammad Ali, my niece, Victoria Jones (Charbonnet-Allen-Breaux-Balugo), and above her, pro basketball player, Bill Russell.