IS BILL COSBY FINISHED ?

        As I read the entertainment news the other day, I got to thinking. "Is Bill Cosby finished?"
   
        My love affair with the 'COZ' goes back to the nineteen sixties. I never missed 'I SPY' and waited with great anticipation for his comedy albums.

        I will never forget "It's the Lord Noah."
   
        During my junior year in high school, Mr. Cosby came to Indiana to do two shows at Ball State University's Emmens Auditorium. The year was 1968, and we all needed to laugh.
   
        Yes, Cosby was well known at the time, but not the superstar that he would eventually become.

        About fifty of us arrived an hour early and were in our seats eagerly awaiting the show. We were an excited bunch. The fact that I was on a date with Ann Sewell took a back seat. I was there to see Bill Cosby.

        All of a sudden this tall, good looking black man came out on the stage. At first I assumed it was a stage hand. Then I saw the cigar in his hand and realized this was the man!.

        He thanked us for coming early and said that if we were willing to arrive that early then he wanted to come out and say hello.

        He talked to us for about twenty minutes before he had to go back stage and get dressed for the show.

        It was a great show. It was like listening to a friend.

        It was so many years ago, I have forgotten what we all talked about, but I remembered how kind and humble the man was.
       
        In the following years, I always watched Cosby. No matter what I was doing or where I lived, if he was on television, I watched.

        For years my wife and I quoted Cosby at least once a day. If we didn't, the day was not complete. Our lives were full of Cosby 'one liners.'
       
        Oh how we enjoyed the antics of Old Weird Harold, Chicken Heart, Driving in San Francisco, Shop Class, Why is There Air, 200 M.P.H., and the story of the Dentist.

        The events of the past week are surprising to me, and heartbreaking.

        Now NBC has cancelled plans for a new series, Netflix has postponed an upcoming special and TV LAND had pulled re-runs of his old NBC program.

        I won't go into the details, as it's been all over the news. You would have to live under a rock not to have heard about all of the allegations.

        I have long been a champion of women's rights. Next to sexual battery on a child, rape is the lowest of the low. So low I hate to even write the word.

        Is he guilty? We will never know. I do know that in a court of law, you are innocent until proven guilty. That doesn't work in the court of public opinion.
       
        Like Steven Collins, (see Seventh Heaven) Bill Cosby will never go to trial. He's already been tried by the masses.
       
        My ex mother in law used to have a saying. 'You not only have to be good, you have to look good' I have never forgotten that.

        I have a saying that I use in life as well. 'Never set yourself up for disaster'

        Bill, you should have listened.

        I don't know if Bill Cosby is finished.
       
        I know I am.