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Richard Chenault II—2007 A Hero Passed
On
And I Still Crash at the Thought
By Bev Jenai
Several days ago I
lost someone very dear to me in a terribly tragic and
nationally publicized accident, Richard Chenault II. He
was the Transplant Organ Specialist for the University
of Michigan Surgery Dept. Their plane crashed in Lake
Michigan as he was in the process of delivering a lung
to U of M’s Health System for a heart transplant
victim. He was also my adopted son, per his request, a
mentor in my mentoring program at the University of
Michigan for over ten years., my hero, and a gentle,
caring soul who was a strong masculine role model for
many African American males. He also was a coach and a
mentor to numerous young people of varying diverse
backgrounds, and especially the young ladies he coached
in high school track. In fact, as many of you have
read, he was to receive the “Coach of the Year’ award
the evening of his untimely departure from this earth.
Many might say his
journey here on earth was way too short . . . but as I
began to reflect on and started thinking about the huge
number of lives he touched during his 44 year. lifespan
on this universe, his relevancy and his life began to
take on a further glow, and it began to far outweigh
what many of us will probably be able to accomplish even
if we’re fortunate enough to live and double his 44
years on this earth as caring people.
After recovering
somewhat from the paralyzing and stunned feeling I felt
after the calls started coming in from Ann Arbor, MI, on
June 4th, a Sunday evening. I began
reflecting on the number of lives Richard had indeed
touched, I mean literally touched . . . I mean
the hearts, kidneys and other internal organs that he
had to prepare, message and cleanse for the transplant
operations held daily at the University of Michigan
Health System, and the consoling ministerial manner he
used with the families whose loved ones were undergoing
these transplants.
He of course, as
mentioned above, was also an honored track coach, and a
daily contributor to his church family, and one of the
most fabulous fathers I ever was privileged to watch
interact with his daughter. I was privileged to take a
trip to Belize about five years ago not only with
several surgeons on the U of M Surgical Transplant Team,
but also with Richard’s wife at the time and his
precious super intelligent daughter Kayla. I also met
many of his prominent relatives on his Mom’s side in
Belize—a bishop, a school director, and many others.
It became obvious that some of the character traits
Richard possessed was not indiscriminately given to him
. . . and that his giving, caring, and spiritual traits,
obviously had become partially inherited.
I never got to see
the ocean on that trip we took to Belize, because while
the surgeons and Richard were examining the health
centers/conditions in Belize, Richard became my director
on site, and I was assigned the task of examining the
schools in Belize . . . talking to the administrators
and determining the possibilities of incorporating
mentoring/school to work programs there . . . A dream of
Richard’s . . . to see mentoring/school to work programs
incorporated into the Belizean School Systems.
My personal
reflections of Richard are many . . . and mainly of him
tirelessly and religiously volunteering over and over
again to mentor young men in the Youth Mentoring Program
I coordinated at the Health System for twelve years.
Getting to know Richard’s desires to help other young
people in the community certainly helped to consummate a
special relationship between us. I specifically
remember his tenacious attempts to find a scholarship
for an African American young man he had mentored for
nearly five years, and for whom he had quickly become a
father figure to. Richard, of course, ultimately was
able to accomplish this, and Mario was awarded a four
year. track scholarship at Wilberforce University in
Ohio.
In the late 90s, I
was also allowed, by the Health System’s HR department
to take two mentoring pairs to a John’s Hopkins Health
System conference on mentoring. Richard and his mentee/student
were chosen to attend this conference and represent the
Health System there. Although there were 100s of
mentoring pairs in attendance from varying Health
Systems, Richard and his mentee received a glossy full
pictured featured article in one of the national
magazines. He was so so pleased and happy with this
coverage, and needless to say the Health System was duly
recognized for the Youth Mentoring Program they had run
for many years.
I’m sure many will
recall as I do, Richard scurrying through the halls of
the Health System with that broad welcoming smile he
always wore on his face, heading to his next assignment
and since he often did training sessions for the Health
system and was a member of many committees, he always
was in a hurry. In fact the humorous side of me just
got a mental snapshot of this “Superman” type figure
about to change roles/or was it his white coat (smiles).
The past few days
of course, have also brought back many more personal
memories. One of which appeared to be his sense of
guardianship over me after my divorce. After I took
over the sole ownership of a 1900 sq. ft colonial home,
Richard would often check to see if I needed any
assistance with the outside maintenance duties that I
often seemed to neglect according to him. Because he
did have a teasing and playful side to him, I remember
him teasing me one day, as he teetered back and forth on
my colonial rooftop home after he had appropriately
chastised me for the number of weeds that I had allowed
to collect in my gutters. This of course, led to him
ultimately taking time out of his busy schedule, and
spending half a day snatching every single weed he could
find from my gutters while still muttering about what
bad shape the gutters were in (smiles).
ea
I’m sure, many
tears including mine, are being shed for this king of a
man whom history books may not/will not record, but
seemingly, Richard had found important keys to living
his life . . . keys he often shared and used. I believe
he felt that to live one’s life in a caring, giving
unselfish manner in Spirit, love and honor, to be
priceless and that one’s happiness often is/was a mere
fringe benefit that came with that territory. Being a
sometimes writer, I dared not and could/cannot remain
silent as I reflected upon this very special African
American man, especially during these times, times when
not enough love, or acknowledgement or recognition for
accomplishments are given to our populace of African
American men who are achieving and giving so much
themselves in life.
I know, that I and
others, will continue to grieve many many moments for
this vibrant Spirit-filled man whom we were privileged
to have had graced our lives . . . and if you didn’t
know Richard Chenault II . . . or only know him based
upon what the newscasters/ media are telling you of the
tragedy, or the terrible visuals you’ve seen over the
past few days, I hope you don’t mind my sharing with
you, though my eyes/heart a few memories that possibly
will help historically record Richard’s time here on our
universe. And, I also hope you understand a bit better,
why Richard was loved by so many people.
It ‘s not a mistake
that Richard Chenault II touched so many people during
his lifespan, literally, figuratively and in Spirit. He
has lit and holds up for us a light—a flaming touch,
that hopfully we all will hold onto to tightly, and that
we will continue to pass on to others, especially to
those who need reminders of what the totality and
measure of a true man is.
For those of us
gifted by his presence in our lives, it is my prayer
that his memory begins or continues to be an innately
important part of our ongoing and caring journeys here
on earth.
Please pray for his
personal & work family!
Copyrighted June
2007
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The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
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Salvage the Bones
A Novel by Jesmyn Ward
On one level, Salvage the Bones is a simple story about a poor black family that’s about to be trashed by one of the most deadly hurricanes in U.S. history. What makes the novel so powerful, though, is the way Ward winds private passions with that menace gathering force out in the Gulf of Mexico. Without a hint of pretension, in the simple lives of these poor people living among chickens and abandoned cars, she evokes the tenacious love and desperation of classical tragedy. The force that pushes back against Katrina’s inexorable winds is the voice of Ward’s narrator, a 14-year-old girl named Esch, the only daughter among four siblings. Precocious, passionate and sensitive, she speaks almost entirely in phrases soaked in her family’s raw land. Everything here is gritty, loamy and alive, as though the very soil were animated. Her brother’s “blood smells like wet hot earth after summer rain. . . . His scalp looks like fresh turned dirt.” Her father’s hands “are like gravel,” while her own hand “slides through his grip like a wet fish,” and a handsome boy’s “muscles jabbered like chickens.” Admittedly, Ward can push so hard on this simile-obsessed style that her paragraphs risk sounding like a compost heap, but this isn’t usually just metaphor for metaphor’s sake. She conveys something fundamental about Esch’s fluid state of mind: her figurative sense of the world in which all things correspond and connect. She and her brothers live in a ramshackle house steeped in grief since their mother died giving birth to her last child. . . . What remains, what’s salvaged, is something indomitable in these tough siblings, the strength of their love, the permanence of their devotion.— WashingtonPost
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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posted 17 June 2008
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