My friend Ruben Navarrette referred me to an inspiring hashtag on Twitter, #WhenThisIsAllOver. People from all over are posting things they think or hope will happen when this pandemic is behind us. Some are funny, like “#WhenThisIsAllOver we will all have bidets”, and some are more heartfelt such as “#WhenThisIsAllOver I will visit my parents more”, but the ones I like the most express appreciation for our healthcare workers. It inspired me to post my own tribute to healthcare workers on Facebook and asked my friends to post pictures of family members who are healthcare workers. I got dozens of comments and photos sent to me, and they all touched me deeply. If you have a family member who is in the trenches right now treating patients and protecting us all from this horrible pandemic, please send me a note about them with a photo. I’m not sure what I am going to do yet, but I want to do something nice to recognize them. They are the heroes of the moment and I hope we never forget what they did for us during this crisis.
The usual solutions will not solve the current housing affordability crisis. Any solution that does not begin and end with a sustainable plan to radically increase housing supply is just noise. The barriers to increasing housing supply are complex and require the crucial cooperation of both public and private sectors, and more education.
“Boomerang” was a different kind of film. It was a movie about friendship, loyalty, and romance set in NYC at a medium-sized Black-led company that sold beauty products. Boomerang had an all-black cast and a plot that had nothing to do with being Black. While that was unheard of at the time, Murphy was such a big star that it didn’t seem like a big deal.
Terms like “great, genius,” and “world-class” are overused, perhaps because they mean something different to everyone. Greatness is subjective. Some might say you must be great just to be employed in the film business or to play professional sports, but I don’t think Will Smith or LeBron James think that way. The concept of being great also requires context. You could be a great high school athlete but only an average college player.