By James B. Ewers Jr. Ed.D.
My earliest experiences with power came with my parents. When they told me to do something, I just did it. I didn’t ask any questions because they loved me and knew more than I did.
They used their “love power” to provide me with the tenets for successful living. While they are no longer with me, I thank them every day. The foundation they laid for me has guided me through good times and challenging times.
They used that “love power” to build me up and to encourage me. They used it to motivate and inspire me. I was surrounded by a constant glow of hope and understanding.
I have been fortunate to be around people over the course of my life who had power and used it wisely. I watched them and when it was my turn, I believe that I, too, used it wisely.
Unfortunately, I have also seen people use power to their detriment and to the detriment of others. Their modus operandi was always to use their power to threaten and to intimidate. They wanted you to fear them and to be afraid.
The good news is they didn’t last long. They faded from the scene much like the wind. They were full of bluster and their talk became cheap.
Over the past several months. America has watched former president Donald Trump become embroiled in the legal system. Mr. Trump in his dishonesty has made others lose their moral integrity as well. One of them is Rudy Giuliana.
Mr. Giuliana became an election peddler of lies. He insisted that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election. The dye was cast as he appeared in various venues spewing out untruths.
One of his targets was the election results in the state of Georgia. The former mayor of the Big Apple seemingly put some of the blame on 2 election workers for Trump’s loss.
The election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea Moss were simply doing their jobs which was to ensure there was a fair election. Both Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss are African American. Why should their race matter? It did matter to Rudy Giuliana as he used race as a factor in his un- fair and unprofessional description of them and their actions.
Sadly, but factually, Rudy G swallowed all the bad hemlock Trump was selling. Both women sued him for defamation and for ruining their reputations. I suspect Mr. G thought he could get away with impugning a person’s character and nothing would happen.
Last week in a federal court in Washington DC, the jury found that Mr. Giuliana was guilty. The court awarded Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss $148 million dollars. The amount is for emotional stress and for the former mayor’s conduct and behavior.
Mr. G should know by now that he is not above the law. It is my opinion that he has become a pathetic soul. The skeleton of Rudy Giuliana is crumbling and corroding before our very eyes.
He has lost whatever political standing he had in the political world. Ken Frydman once a campaign staffer for him said, “Rudy Giuliana was seduced by Trump and a combination of variables that led to his downfall.”
It will be interesting to see if Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss receive any money from this trial. Ms. Freeman said, “Money will never solve all my problems. I can never move back into my house that I call home. I will always have to be careful where I go and who I choose to share my name with”.
Let us hope that both find a path to go forward and to once again lead productive lives. In the mean-time, Rudy Giuliana has a dim and dismal future awaiting him.
Dr. James B. Ewers, Jr. is a longtime educator who hails from Winston Salem, N.C. One of the top tennis players in the state, he was inducted into the Black Tennis Hall of Fame in January 2021. A graduate of Johnson C. Smith University, he received his M. A. degree in Education from Catholic University in Washington, DC, and Ed. D. degree in Education from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA. He has also done post-doctoral studies at Harvard University and Ewers is a life member of the NAACP and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.
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