Inspiration Of A Troubled Life: Rodney King
A Message From The Creator: Happy Father’s Day
Inspirational Woman Of The Day: Gladys Knight
Women In The News: Women’s Health
The Incredible Strength Of A Woman: Aimee Copeland
Inspiration Of A Troubled Life: Rodney King
I just want to take a moment to pay tribute to a father gone to soon. RIP, Rodney King
Rodney King, who gained national fame when his 1991 beating by Los Angeles police was caught on videotape, was reportedly shot late Wednesday night (Nov. 28, 2007).
King, 42, was wounded on a San Bernardino street corner before biking about 1 1/2 miles back to his home in neighboring Rialto to report the incident at 11:39 p.m., police said.
He had been shot two or three times with birdshot fired from a shotgun, police said. King, who was allegedly appeared drunk when police arrived at his home, was hit in the face, arms, back and torso. He was taken to a local hospital, but the wounds were not believed to be life-threatening.
No arrests were made, and other details of the shooting were sketchy. There was “speculation” that the shooting may have involved some kind of domestic dispute, but “we’re not sure about that yet,” San Bernardino police Lt. Scott Paterson said.
Beating Incident by LAPD
King, an African-American, gained national attention when amateur cameraman George Holliday captured video of four white Los Angeles police officers clubbing and kicking him. The incident followed a high-speed car chase on March 3, 1991.
The officers — Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno, and Stacey Koon — were charged with criminal offenses, including assault with a deadly weapon. Their trial was originally set to be held in Los Angeles, but defense attorneys successfully argued that a fair trial in L.A. would be impossible because of the publicity.
The trial was moved to Simi Valley, a predominantly white suburb of L.A. The jury was comprised of ten white people, one Hispanic person, and one Asian person, and many people objected to the fact that there were no African Americans on the jury.
Acquittal and Resulting Riots
The officers’ acquittal in April 1992 triggered riots in South Central, Los Angeles. More than fifty people were killed and more than 2,000 were injured. 9,500 were arrested for rioting, looting, and arson.
The United States Department of Justice filed federal civil rights charges against the four officers, and in August of 1992 two of them were found guilty while the other two were acquitted.
King was eventually awarded $3.8 million in a civil trial for the injuries he sustained.
The riots and police response to it resulted in the resignation of Police Chief Darryl Gates, thought by many minorities to symbolize institutionalized racial intolerance. He was replaced by a black chief, Willie Williams, who introduced several changes suggested by an independent commission that investigated the riots.
Rodney Glen King, born April 2, 1965 in Fort Worth, Texas, has reportedly had several brushes with the law over the years.
Troubled Life and Death
After his beating by police officers in 1991, King continued to lead a troubled life, struggling with alcholism and having brushes with the law. In 2004, he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of the drug PCP after he lost control of his SUV and slammed into a power pole in Rialto, California. In 2005, he was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence, and in 2007, police found him drunk with non-life threatening gunshot wounds also believed to be the result of a domestic dispute.
King shared his struggles as a reality TV star on shows such as VH1’s Celebrity Rehab and in his 2012 memoir The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption.
Upon the 20th anniversary of the L.A. riots, King told CNN he had forgiven the officers who had beaten him, saying, “Yes, I have forgiven them because I have been forgiven so many times. My country’s been good to me, and I’ve done some things that wasn’t pleasant in my lifetime and I’ve been forgiven for that.”
In a final tragic twist, Rodney King’s life ended on June 17, 2012, found by his fiancee Cynthia Kelly at the bottom of a swimming pool in Rialto, California. There were no preliminary signs of foul play and he was pronounced dead at a local hospital, 20 years after the L.A. riots threw him into the center of the debate on race in America.
A Message From The Creator: Happy Father’s Day
THANK YOU
Dear dad,
On this special day
I’d just like you to know,
Thank you for all the ways
You taught me to grow.
Thank you for your descipline
It’s helped me to be strong
In making life decisions
All the day long.
Thank you for your humor,
It’s put a smile on my face.
It’s helped me impart laughter
In many a needed place.
Thank you for your tenacity
it’s helped me stay focused
On what is right, and what is wrong
And avoiding lots of jokers.
Thank you for your Love.
In doses big and small
It’s carried me throughout the years
And it’s made me,
Oh so tall.
D. Alsup
Happy Father’s Day
Published June 17, 2012
FoxNews.com
What dads really think about Father’s Day
This Sunday, fathers around America will be showered with gifts, meals, hugs and activities centered on us. We will receive ties, cologne, cufflinks and gift cards from our wives. Our children will give us clay coin holders (which were ashtrays 30 years ago), and art featuring stick figure families, with daddy having the largest circle-head. We will be thanked for our hard work, our sacrifice and our love…And many of us dads will think it’s all much ado about nothing.
Of course we lay down the law. Yes, you better defer to us when it comes to the thermostat, lights and how long it takes to shower. Yes, we are the he-man bug killers and retrievers of stuff on high shelves. You better believe that we are the driving instructors and keepers of the remote, and don’t you forget ANY of that!
But the one thing that Father’s Day means to fathers is gratitude. Boy oh boy, we are so thankful for YOU.
Most every father I know, myself included, lives in awe of our families. None of us ever get over the images of pregnancy and childbirth. Those events impact us forever, and frame our lives forever.
Most of us spend Father’s Day just so happy that you love us, so humbled by the miracle of life. We are amazed we somehow got to marry a girl like YOU. We can’t get over that our daughters love us, and that our sons want to BE us. On Father’s Day, we get out the telescope and count our lucky stars.
Fathers’ Day is not only a day of reflection, for most dads it’s a day which finds us looking forward as well.
As we look around us, the hunter-gatherer in us takes note of what the family needs going forward. We pledge silently to ourselves that Monday begins a new push for more and better, safer and healthier everything for our families. We resolve that we will be better fathers, more attentive husbands; prepared to double our efforts so as to provide. Longer days, harder work, less sleep; whatever it takes to keep the family healthy, protected and happy.
Many of us will promise ourselves to finally get to the doctor for the check ups and screenings which we hate so much. Because we so fear our own mortality, very often men take refuge in the notion that “no news is good news” so we avoid the doc like the plague itself.
Father’s Day reminds us how badly we want to be around for as long as possible to see weddings and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
So at some point this Sunday, take a few moments to just observe dad.
I promise that if you watch us long enough, you’ll see a deep breath, a wiped tear or a lingering gaze. At any moment you may see serenity, awe or fear.
And if you could hear our thoughts at those moments we’ll be saying “I want this to last forever.”
To our wives and children on behalf of dads everywhere, your gift to us is you…And we are so very grateful.
T.J. McCormack is a comedian and commentator. He is host and producer of “Sunday Night with T.J. McCormack.”
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