RIP Sidney Poitier

People die but there seems to have been a lot of big names who died recently. 2022 brings back some more. After reading about the subject of this entry, I saw that Lani Guinier too died.* A political moment was opposition to her for Clinton's [OMG ... was it that long ago?] assistant attorney general because she was a "quota queen." One of various targets. They continue today.

The son of tomato farmers in the Bahamas, Sidney became the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor — but the trail he blazed extended leaps and bounds beyond his background or profession. He blazed a path for our Nation to follow, and a legacy that touches every part of our society today.

Part of President Biden's statement. He was a pioneer as a black actor and as a public figure in general, including in promotion of civil rights. He had a long career in film, the stage, and some television. Some greats I liked:   

A Patch of Blue, Lilies in the Field, In the Heat of the Night, Brother John, Sneakers, and to toss it in, Separate But Equal (t.v. movie/Thurgood Marshall).  And, yes, To Sir With Love.

A well known film is Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner, also Spencer Tracy's final film, which was more of an "event" sort of film than really that good.  He played his normal role there, the reasonable, civilized black person.  That isn't all he did (with Bill Cosby, for instance, he had a few just silly, with a bit of schmaltz at times, films), but I am not aware of a time when he was simply a heavy.  

He did play a convict in The Defiant Ones, but even there he is principled and all. Some other black would just let the wounded Tony Curtis go. Anyway, he was in the last years of his career in the 1980s, but I saw him in a few things then and later, including the fun film Sneakers.  He died in his 90s, with is a good run. 

As in each case, we should honor their lives, careers, and how they made the world a better place.  And, live on the best we can to do what we can to continue to make the world a better place.  RIP. 

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* Comments here reference Clinton "caving," showing his "move to the right" and so forth.  What a loser!  Turns out that many Democratic senators told him the nomination was going badly.  That it was time to cut bait and pick someone less a target while still promoting some of her general ideas in the long run. 

The "quickly" cave was a matter of months.  One where he had to choose whether -- while dealing with a range of nominations and all the other stuff involved in governing -- to stick with one assistant attorney general pick.   

This is a standard complaint.  People latch on to one event like this, making it all about the president, when it is a matter of picking your battles while balancing a whole mess of things.  How to play each case is a complicated judgment call.  I'm glad to not have to make such calls.  Any one might be wrong, or you can spin it to be better than it is, but it's still darn hard.

And, this was the early 1990s, a more conservative time, the country just electing a plurality POTUS who ran on the economy and being a "new type of Democrat."  A time when various "good" Democrats voted for the Orwellian Defense of Marriage Act.  

Some see her nomination as basically an early case of the Democrats "caving" to Republican extremism.  But, this is also damn selective. Do people not think other nominees were targeted over the years and removed when it was determined not to be worth it?  That only Democratic presidents do this?  And, again, if the person is in the first place trying to thread the needle, it is going to be harder.   

Does the "buck stop" with the POTUS (or whomever makes the final call) to some extent?  Yes. President Biden, e.g., has officially said that not enough was done to deal with COVID, even if he could say, "what do yo you want me to do?  I'm not God, here!" 

But, this doesn't mean the person acts alone, especially in the wider sense of things.  Again, there are degrees here.  The point holds all the same. 

tl;dr -- grow up, and realize the whole picture.