I miss the days when most Republicans had some honor, the days before they became the fascist cowards that they are under Trump’s presidency. Colin Powell had been a Republican who I respected highly. He was a Republican until he declared himself an Independant after the extremism of Trump’s first term as President.
Powell wasn’t perfect. He made mistakes. He made big mistakes, some that had him crucified by the nation. But I admire how he admits to his mistakes in “It Worked for Me“. The degree of humanity this man had comes across clearly in this book, the extraordinary care and respect he had for fellow human beings, whether they were everyday civilians, soldiers, immigrants, politicians, foreigners. Powell was generous, kind and respectful.
A few years ago, I read R. Lee Ermey’s “How to Get Squared Away Like a Marine”. While I found some things from Ermey’s book useful, I was put off by other things. Through much of Ermey’s book, he was an asshole, and his views on people were too extreme for me. Powell, another military man who rose much higher in rank than Ermey, had a better attitude toward people and life. I felt that Powell had more useful things to say than Ermey.
Though I was never in the military, I had thought of Colin Powell as my general. Though Powell was an old man and he was fighting cancer, reports were that he was doing well, until Covid struck him down at the age of 84. I blame Trump’s mishandling of the Covid 19 pandemic for Colin Powell’s death.
