Donald Trump (left), and Bill Cosby
A couple months back, a news reporter asked then-incumbent candidate Kelly Ayotte if she would tell her kids to use Donald Trump — who was then, the Republican nominee for President — as a, “Role Model”. The question was part of a televised debate for U.S. Senator in New Hampshire.
Senator Ayotte initially said that she hoped that the Reporter would ask her opponent in that particular Debate, then-Governor Maggie Hassan, a similar type question about if HER kids ought to view the Democrat Presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton as a “Role Model”. Needless to say, the Reporter never bothered to ask then-Governor Hassan that question.
But Senator Ayotte, at that time, said she had no qualms about Mr. Trump serving as a “Role Model” for her kids. Then a week or two after this debate, an audio tape emerged from a popular show of about 11 years ago, which Trump said — unknowing that a microphone was ‘on’ during his conversation — some disparaging things about women, which Trump later publicly apologized for and referred to as, “locker room talk”. Ayotte would soon recant her statement from that debate and said she could no longer support Trump in the Presidential race and publicly said she would Write-in vice presidential candidate Mike Pence for President during the Election.
But in fairness to Mr. Trump, do even Parents qualify as ideal “Role Models” for our children? I don’t think so.
About 10-15 years ago, I used to have my two sons over my apartment every weekend and one of the things they would want to watch was, The David Chappelle Show on the Comedy Central network. Needless to say, I was absolutely stunned when I heard Chappelle’s rather frequently referring to other Black men and women by, “the ‘N’ word”. I immediately thought to myself, how many Caucasian public figures have been literally destroyed over referring to Blacks by the ‘N’ word, YET, here we’ve got this seemingly popular Black comedian blatantly spewing this out in reference to other Black people with no adverse consequences whatsoever. Un-BLEEPIN-believable!!!
I did tell my sons — whether you find David Chappelle funny or not — DON’T EVER LET ME HEAR ABOUT YOU REFERRING TO A BLACK PERSON BY, THE ‘N’ WORD. I remember bringing up at the time, what a tremendous “Role Model” Bill Cosby was to the American Black community. Cosby, who was obviously old enough to be Chappelle’s dad, had a situation comedy TV show, which he played the role of a Doctor, the actress portraying his wife played the role of an Attorney, and his kids mostly faced situations common in most affluent American communities. Needless to say, “The Cosby Show” basically put Black people in a very unusual and positive spotlight.
But as the old cliche goes, Looks Can Be Deceiving, as it would be proven several years later, that Bill Cosby certainly more Demons “in his closet” and could aptly make David Chappelle look like an Altar Boy.
Apparently, Cosby had been drugging numerous women over the years to make them physically helpless so he could proceed to have sexual relations with them — and then claim afterwards it was all “concentual”.
In other words, I was obviously 180 degrees off-base on assuming that Bill Cosby served as some type of “great Role Model” for the American Black community. So do I view myself as a great “Role Model” for my own sons? Not really — there are a lot of things I’ve done in my life which I’m not too proud of and I would hate to see my boys go down that exact same path.
Personally, Jesus Christ is the ONLY role model I would hope my sons someday will choose to follow. Could they possibly go through their whole lives without any sin — heck no, nobody’s perfect. But in the end, Jesus is the only way we can ever attain Salvation — with everything (and everybody) else, we just consistently miss the mark on ever possibly getting it right.
One Bad Decision Away From Homelessness 