There Are “Two Up And One Down!”

This past week was quite a week, for two African American men were lifted up and one was cast down. I am so happy that this past week the city of Newburgh swore in it’s first African American man ,Torrance Harvey, to be it’s mayor. That was a historical move! Also, another African American man, Anthony Grice was sworn in as councilman to fill the vacated seat of Mr. Harvey. Mr. Tyrone Crabb, actually was the first African American man to be elected as mayor for the city of Newburgh, but he died before he could sit in that seat. Hopefully, Mayor Harvey and Councilman Grice, with the help of the other council members, will be able to move our city in the direction whereby it will be beneficial to “All” of the citizens. Being that they both are educators and employees of the Newburgh Enlarged School District, hopefully together they will be able to bring some new ideas to the council regarding our youth.

Programs such as “We Are Our Brother’s Keeper” which is a part of the Newburgh School District, could be very instrumental if something like that was in place for our youth that are no longer in school.

Today, while thinking about what else should I should write about the news flashed on the screen about Bill Cosby. “Cosby 80,best known as the loveable father from the 1980’s TV hit ‘The Cosby Show’ faces up to ten years in prison.” In the past, 62 women had come forth claiming misconduct, but one year ago in June the trial was deadlocked, which caused a mistrial.

Prosecutors decided to retry Mr. Cosby and this time around they won. Truthfully, I have mixed emotions about all of this for when I was in show business in the 50’s I saw how the young women used to throw themselves at the band members in our group which was “Billy & Lillie & The Thunderbirds!” The women used to sometimes throw their panties up on the stage and being only 18 at the time, I was shocked. We in no way were as popular as Bill Cosby, therefore I can only imagine what types of temptations were thrown his way. Wow!
This also makes my mind go back to many years ago when the slave women were continuously raped by their slave masters and no one cared about them. Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying regarding all of this, but I do find it to be quite questionable in the way that Bill Cosby is being treated comparably to the many white men that have committed similar acts but they are not receiving nor have received the same wrath that Bill Cosby has.

Many believe that due to Mr. Cosby at one time was trying to purchase one of the major TV stations they had to stop him by “any means necessary!”

Let me end this with the fact that one day we “ALL” are going to have to give an account for all of our actions, therefore we should be very mindful of the way we treat one another!

This is “Lillie’s Point Of View” and I’m just having my say!

Community Bulletin: Thursday May 3rd @ 6:30PM: Newburgh School District Candidates’ Forum @ The Ritz, 111 Broadway, Newburgh, NY.