Small Things Count

I’m going to say something very unpopular here: Bill Cosby should keep his Medal of Freedom.  For one thing, under the criteria for the medal, he earned it.  The criteria is that recipients must be “Americans who have contributed richly to the national life some way.”  There is no morals clause.  Cosby did contribute, by making us laugh–often at ourselves–and by making many people forget that the family man on TV, who was so much like us, was actually Black.

Remember that year, 2002?  The U.S. invaded Afghanistan; there were constant news stories of Israelis and Palestinians killing off masses of men, women, and children; the Pope brought priest child abuse fully into the open; an asteroid came close to crashing into the earth; floods ravaged our relatives and friends in Eastern Europe; stories of the carnage of the Beltway bomber filled our newspapers and magazines; a Chinese plane crashed and another disintegrated, killing hundreds.  We needed some laughter to release the tension.  Cosby gave us that laugh.

The other reason he should keep the medal is that he has been accused but not convicted of some horrible acts.  Admittedly, he looks as guilty as Satan.  However, all people are protected under our law and are innocent until proven guilty.  We don’t get to apply that rule of law selectively, even if we feel down to our toes that a person is guilty.

All this is academic, of course, because whoever thought up the award didn’t conceive of a time when they’d regret giving it to someone.  Therefore, there’s no way established to take it back.