The publisher has decided to take a short sabbatical/hiatus from writing this column and will return in our July 1st issue. In the meantime, we are reprinting some of his Af-Am bits from past years that remain very relevant that you might have missed.

This bit was taken from the October 1, 2021 issue of POV EDITORS CAN BE FUNNY
Writing is a flawed art. And if you take your mistakes personally, you’ll become creatively paralyzed which is why I so much appreciated a piece in a recent Barbara Bernard article in The Republican that my wife and editor brought to my attention at a timely moment. Bernard wrote: “There is a story about a husband who received a text from his wife which read, ‘Your the love of my life. I adore you. I will do anything for you.’ He sent a text back which read, ‘You’re the love of my life. I adore you. I will do anything for you.’ From that day forward his wife cooked him gourmet dinners, gave him back rubs and waited on him hand and foot. He is still wondering if he should tell her the message he sent back was just to correct her misspelled ‘your’ when it should have been ‘you’re.’” I got an extended laugh at the joke and at the fact that my editor called it to my attention because I had just reread a “bit” I had written in the September issue of Point of View about the Harambee in which I had written about an article in The Republican: “All of us Hurst’s got a big laugh out of the misrepresentations.” Of course, “Hurst’s” should have been “Hursts.” But because I made the error and my editor didn’t catch it before we went to print, there were no consequences between us, good or bad. (Of course, neither of us would have waited on the other hand and foot anyway.)

This bit was taken from the February 1, 2022 issue of POV FOR THE RECORD, MANY WHITE FOLKS I DISAGREE WITH, I DON’T DISLIKE
Take Liz Cheney for example – I don’t dislike her. In fact, even though I disagree with her on many things – probably most things – I like her and I respect her because it is obvious that she is a principled person who can’t be bought and places principle over politics and America over party. First and foremost, that’s my kind of person. She strikes me as a White person I could be friends with because she can tell me what she thinks and I can tell her what I think, both of us without mincing words or casting aspersions. And we might even change each other’s minds on some things. I have received many comments from folks who wonder why I dislike White people. The truth is I like White people who are honest and demonstrate integrity and especially those who have learned to recognize and temper their racism, however difficult it may be. I thoroughly dislike White folks who think they are superior to Black folks and act it out or go out of their way to deny the privilege that comes along with being White in America. I think I’m reasonable. And I think it is reasonable to say that some of the retrograde white behavior going on in America today is disheartening and dangerous and more good White Americans – liberal, moderate and conservative – need to be more vocal about it and more active in confronting it.

These two bits were taken from the September 1, 2022 issue of POV TRUMP ISN’T GOING AWAY
“Trump’s resilience seems puzzling. Why does a sizable chunk of the Republican Party remain in his corner, when those voters could back a more disciplined candidate who shares the former president’s policies and attitude? The question assumes that voters are logical and that charismatic leadership is easily transferable. Neither assumption is true. The connection between populist tribunes and their followers is personal rather than intellectual. The leader becomes a symbol of resistance against everything the crowd despises.” (Boston Sunday Globe, August 7, 2022)

DON’T BLAME THE UNEDUCATED
“In fact, scholars have found that highly educated Americans are central to the political polarization that is fracturing our country. They are less likely than the average American to communicate with people who don’t share their views and more likely to view their political adversaries with hostility. Their views are often inaccurate and their political reasoning is often poor – precisely the characteristics that education is supposed to counteract.” (Boston Sunday Globe, August 7, 2022)

This bit was taken from the November 1, 2022 issue of POV ATTORNEY GEORGE M. NASSAR: 1937-2022
George Nassar was my friend. I hadn’t seen or heard from him in many years. I met him when he was a powerful and highly regarded White Springfield attorney who was making a lot of money and could have easily blown me off when I came to him for help when I was told that I could not teach school in the Springfield Public Schools because of my civil rights activities. I had arrived back in Springfield in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. altered my career trajectory. I focused on young people and when riots broke out at Technical High School, I became involved as an informal advisor to the Black students. Eventually, befuddled school authorities reluctantly invited me in to speak to the Black students, who they had isolated in a gym. The students were seated on bleachers restive and angry and anxious to fight White students who they had been grappling with. I calmed them down but rumors spread that some Black female students had been trapped and beaten in another area of the school and all hell broke loose.
The fighting between Black and White students spread out into Elliot Street and cops came from all over the city and finally quelled the violence. The result was a Black student walk-out and boycott of all four of the high schools and the temporary establishment of “freedom schools” in Black churches. I was seen as the leader of it all but, the fact is, many prominent members of the Black community helped coordinate the boycott. At some point I was arrested on false charges which were dismissed at the pre-trial conference.
Sometime thereafter, I applied to teach school and was denied because of my role in the boycott and other events of the times. Determined to teach, I sought out George Nasser for help. He didn’t hesitate. He set up a meeting with then Springfield School Superintendent John Deady and threatened him in my presence by saying he would represent me for free in a lawsuit against John Deady, the city and the school system and John Deady, knowing Nassar’s reputation, folded and I was soon teaching at Kiley Jr. High School.
George Nassar was a good man who will be missed.

THE RELIGIOUS CORE OF THE RACIST MAGA MOVEMENT
I don’t get it. Everybody knows that Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement refers to a return to the days when Black folks were assigned second class citizenship or worse, and the Hispanic population was small enough in numbers to be nonthreatening and women were “kept in their place.” And when every White man was considered superior to all. And when Antisemitism was the virulent exception. But what I don’t get is how the MAGA movement has been embraced by some of the most prominent White religious groups in the country. I’ve heard and read all of the various reasons and excuses for why that is supposed to serve as justification. There is no justification, in my mind, for people who are so Godly to make a bargain with the devil.

CLARENCE AND GINNI THOMAS
What a couple. The current Supreme Court is probably not the most political ever but it must be close. And Justice Clarence Thomas, with the assistance of his White MAGA wife, Ginni, appears to be the worst offender. I personally have very little confidence in the Court. And if polls are correct, so do most people. And most by a lot. When combining the outright politics of all six conservative justices with the suspect ethics of Justices Thomas and, to a lesser degree Alito, justice doesn’t have much of a chance. ■