Independence

America watches too much TV. Lately our heroes are born from what we see not who we meet. It is difficult to meet a hero. So, we value who we see. Trump on TV looked confident in the boardroom of his show, not so arrogant. Tiger Woods was our newest greatest golfer, not the cheating husband with multiple women. Bill Clinton was our charismatic President, not the guy having sex with another woman in the White House. Nixon and Kissinger were the best at international relations, not the disgraced lying President who resigned.  O.J. Simpson was our handsome football athlete and actor, not the thief and possible horrific murderer and Bill Cosby was our educated family black man representative on his very popular show who sold Jello and pudding, not the sexual predator drugging multiple women. Americans love our home grown heroes but it is hard to find good candidates lately.

This weekend honor the heroes in your life who touched your mind in a good way from our soldiers who have our backs to the crossing guards who watch our children from danger to anyone you know who impacted your life in a good way. Independence is a good thing. Americans fought for it over 200 years ago and we still treasure their gain even more today in a dangerous world with too many weapons and not enough of kindness and love. We always need to suppress those who have failed us. At times our fallen heroes escape unscathed in our elaborate court system but that is a form of independence too. O.J. never got convicted of murder even though his boot prints were found in his murdered wife’s blood. Trump will probably go on without a conviction even though all we hear about every day is his close relationship with Russia. Cosby just walked away in a mistrial from conviction even though 50 women have come forward admitting being violated by him.

The jury in Bill Cosby’s trial took 52 hours to decide that they couldn’t come up with a unanimous decision. So, now there will be the same judge again but with a different jury. You have to have all 12 jurors to agree or the trial gets thrown out in a mistrial.  Cosby’s lawyer asked 6 times for a mistrial and now the defense considers it all a win. Cosby’s wife called the judge arrogant. Why? Doesn’t she know that the same Judge will have the authority to decide on minimum or maximum sentencing?  Too often the wives still stand beside their fallen husbands from grace. Cosby never testified in his own defense but some of the most damaging evidence came from his own dispositions from years ago. In a civil case he admitted to obtaining quaaludes specifically to give to women and not to take himself and have sex with those women. Not something America had the vision of in their hero dad on TV.

America’s dad shouldn’t be a serial cheater. Cheating on your wife is not a crime but the drugging for sex is a crime. Cosby called all the sex consensual. Well than why all the drugging before sex that the women didn’t consent to? Another trial will be scheduled within the year.