Charlie Rangel: The 80 year old “Boy”

The question could well be, how do you treat an 80 year old boy who has represented New York's 15th congressional district for over 40 years? Just what do you do with an 80 year old boy possessing a dream of having a Rangel Center for Public Service located at the prestigious New York City College?

You find reasons to bring stress into his life. You charge him with ethic violations with his fund raising methods to build his center.

And after bringing charges, how do you deal with an 80 year old boy begging to have his trial conducted in a timely fashion before he goes broke paying his lawyers over two million dollars over a two year period preparing for his defense? What to do when those same lawyers shake him down for an additional one million dollars after his trial date is finally announced, abandoning him due to the fact he does not have any more money?

What do you do with an eighty year old boy whom the prosecutor himself shamelessly admits is the only one of many Congresspersons who has been investigated for raising money for the honor of having a center named after themselves?

Fund raising for centers happen all the time but, alas, for shame, not by an 80 year old boy.

And finally, the question remains: What happens to an 80 year old boy and his deferred dream? What do you do with him? Do you lynch him? Do you let him suffer the fate of Langston Hughes’ raisin by letting him dry up in the sun, or fester like a sore or begin to stink like rotten meat or just leave him to sag and explode in the forum heat of public humiliation?

Fighting for the dignity of my Ancestors,
God bless Bill Gates, WPFW, C-SPAN and the spirits of the unborn for the help,
BB