Educational Excellence

I waited until today to write an e-mail/blog because it will be a short week for me … and I will be traveling to New York/New Jersey on Friday!  It’s Memorial Day Weekend, too … so we’ve got four days to celebrate!

Just wanted to give a quick shout out to my friend, “Rebecca”, who is in England and has the same birthday as my Mother, May 20th.  Happy Belated Birthday, Rebecca!  I miss you a lot and hope you come back from England one day so I can see you again!  Best wishes always.  Official Happy Birthday to my sister Edna D. Cook whose birthday is today!

I also wanted to congratulate another reader/friend, Stacey Leal, who just got engaged.  Stacey is a friend from a few years back whom I met in Ft. Lauderdale.  She is a lovely lady who found just the right guy to propose to her!  Congratulations, Stacey!

Okay, so … what’s the state of affairs with race relations in this country?  The POTUS Obama is finishing his second term amidst the muck and mire of USA politics.  Let’s take a thermometer reading … George Zimmerman just got over $100,000 (some say $250,000!) for the auctioning of the gun he used to kill unarmed Trayvon Martin.  Just the simple fact that someone thinks that “owning” this weapon of probably the most cowardly person (I use that term loosely ) in this country who killed an unarmed teenager is something “special” and worth over $100,000 to buy and own is a travesty … to me!  I have little to nothing to say about Zimmerman … except that he is a “hideous punk”, and as one author suggested, needs to go away … these are the only things I would like to say about him, too!

Next, the officer who drove the van in an extremely haphazard way … who also refused to secure Freddie Gray as he bounced around in the back of a police van for about a half hour with Mr. Gray’s spinal injury which was incurred as the same “gang” of officers abused him before throwing him into the police van … was found not guilty by a judge!!!  The folks in Baltimore are demanding that the additional officers be brought to justice immediately … though many suspect the same results.  While Mr. Gray’s family did receive a fairly decent amount of “money” for the unfair death of their son and brother … nothing can bring his life back … and those responsible for his ultimate murder should be charged like any other “citizen in the USA” who murders another “unarmed” human being who was RUNNING away … and NEVER EVER charged with anything by the officers that killed him!  Same thing happened in Brooklyn …  Can anybody say, “Tsk tsk tsk?!?”  I gotta say “Damn!” as a black man!!! Wt@!!

Yet, there are reasons for me to be cheerful … I am embarking on the journey to New Jersey via New York’s LaGuardia Airport Friday to attend my 40th Reunion for the Graduation Class of 1976!!!  I am so excited, you can’t imagine!  I am grateful for friends like John Young who got my flight to New York and back using his Delta Sky Miles and for Willy Landrigan, Class of 76 from Princeton, who helped arrange my campus activities.  I look forward to seeing college chums like Lloyd Lawrence, Dennis Hewlett and Leicester Bruce Stovell at the Reunion!  Let the festivities begin!

Peace,

John I. Cook, Director