Thursday, June 23, 2005

Sylvester Brown's Column In Post Today Is A Good One

Anyone who has ever read this blog knows that I'm not a fan of the Post Dispatch and especially not of the most liberal of the writers on the staff. That said I also think that I'm able and capable of separating politics and recognize a good column that just happens to be written by a journalist that has a very different political leaning than mine. Well that is the case today in the Post when I read the article by Sylvester Brown Jr.

Brown's Cosby Article

Brown writes about the conflict that he is facing after the recent Bill Cosby visit and shares personal reflections in an eloquent and insightful manner. There is a deeply personal yet reserved manner to Sylvester's article that he did not have to share, but he decided to. It's rare that I walk away from reading an article in a newspaper today where I feel that the writer really shared a personal moment that they were currently involved in figuring out. In Brown's article today I felt that was the case.

It's a fascinating story revolving around Cosby's call to the African American community to be self empowered, and the journalist (Brown) that he contacted to organize and spread that message here in STL. It's also a story about a self made African American journalist who pulled himself up from the Projects to become a successful journalist and the conflict he faces with the Cosby message. My read was that Brown believes that the overall message is right but is struggling over the parts of the message he feels are wrong are perhaps aspect that are hard to come to terms with or overly harsh.

We all have had moments like that, but few write about it in the paper. I doubt if Sylvester Brown really cares what I think about his column, but I do think its one of the best I've read in the Post this year. If you have not read it, then its certainly worth a couple minutes of your time I think.............................