Colin Powell RIP

Sad news: the great pubilc servant, Secretary of State and four-star General Colin Powell, has died at age 84.

His life and career are the stuff of what American myth are made of: born to poor immigrants, he worked hard and proved himself and eventually reached the highest reaches of the US government, both in and out of uniform. 

And he was a New Yorker -- born in Harlem, raised in the Bronx, and a graduate of City College. 

I distinctly remember when, in the summer of 1989, he was appointed Chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff, my mother pointed out his humble NYC roots and was impressed that not had he become the first black man to reach such heights in the US military but that he was also the first ROTC graduate to do so. Then I remember in 1990 and 1991, Powell along with Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf became the face of American triumph in Operation Desert Storm aka the Gulf War. Sadly, a decade-plus later, he became the face of American bumbling in the second Gulf War, the misadventure in Iraq. 

Still, his life was an inspiration, not only for black Americans but for all who saw nobility and purpose in a life of service and hard work. And he never forgot where he came from.

RIP.