Bless me now with your fierce tears XII

Chadwick Boseman, who played Jackie Robinson AND James Brown in addition to his memorable turn in BLACK PANTHER, dies at 43 after a struggle with colon cancer:

https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/black-panther-actor-chadwick-boseman-dies-43-year-72695058

laine lowe wrote:

Such shocking and tragic news. It seems he was first diagnosed 4 years ago, stage 3 then which progressed despite chemo and surgeries to stage 4 - and he never stopped working throughout his illness. I heard a clip from an interview Boseman did just before the release of "The Black Panther" where he was so moved and emotional about two young boys who both had cancer and were big fans, excited about the film, but died before it was released.

FU cancer.

Agreed.  And it adds a whole new level of pathos to know that, when he was writing to those kids and while he was filming BLACK PANTHER, Boseman had already been diagnosed with Stage III cancer himself and knew that he would probably not have that many more years to live.

The best tribute we can pay to this remarkable young man is to fight for the kind of human liberation he lived for and, in the roles he played, the plays he directed and the plays he wrote, fought for, "by any means necessary"

Saskatoon cycling advocate Cathy Watts, 72

Lord help us all

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/18/politics/ruth-bader-ginsburg-dead/index.html

Prof Stephen Cohen, 81 of lung cancer. A fearless and knowledgeable American scholar of Russia who battled the know-nothings of  Russiagate pushing Neo-McCarthyism and a new Cold War with everything he had and was reviled by them for doing so. Much respect and many thanks for all the wisdom transmitted and left behind. His last interview...

https://youtu.be/E8T6qlXu7bU

Andre Vltchek 57, novelist, filmmaker, independent journalist, revolutionary, destroyer of bourgeois liberal illusions and delusions. Dead under 'mysterious circumstances' in Turkey. Rest in resistance brother.

Meron Benvenisti, Vocal Supporter of a Binational State, Dies at 86

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-columnist-meron-benvenisti-vocal-supporter-of-binational-state-dies-at-86-1.9171510

Eddie Van Halen:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/celebrities-react-to-the-death-of-eddie-van-halen/ss-BB19LDOq?ocid=msedgntp

More sad news on the music front with the passing of Johnny Nash. He wasn't a huge hit maker (although I LOVE his song "I Can See Clearly Now the Rain is Gone"), he was instrumental to introducing reggae to North America and promoting Bob Marley:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/johnny-nash-death-obit-1.5753124

Wonderful. Didn't know that.

Robert Murray, villainously anti-union, anti-environmental regulation mine magnate, who killed his workers by forcing them to mine the pillars of coal left in place to support the mine shaft, causing his mine to collapse, dead and deservedly so:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/robert-murray-coal-magnate-dies-age-80/

Sean Connery, age 90

Sad loss - much too soon.

Robert Fisk, veteran British foreign correspondent, dies aged 74

I just heard the news on CBC's "The Current". Damn, way too young to lose such a brilliant and just person. Some more tributes from the Irish Times (Dublin became his home away from his Beirut home):

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/tributes-paid-to-fearless-journali...

How did we miss Percy Schmeiser?

Quote:

Schmeiser was a Saskatchewan farmer from Bruno who stood tall in the face of a lawsuit from Monsanto. He also contributed to his community in a number of other ways -- he was a family farmer, a small business operator, a Liberal member of the Saskatchewan legislature, and the mayor of Bruno for many years.

In the late 1990s, Schmeiser was accused of using Monsanto's patented "Roundup Ready" canola seed without paying royalties. Monsanto sued for patent infringement.

Throughout the years and court proceedings, Schmeiser maintained that Monsanto's patented canola seed had swept onto his land with the wind, and that he had not planted it deliberately. Nor did he use the Roundup pesticide to grow the crop.

He also maintained that as a farmer he had the right to save seed grown in his fields and replant that seed from year to year as generations of farmers before him had done. Schmeiser called himself a seed developer and a seed saver, as well as a farmer, but he did not sell seed. He simply saved and developed seed for use on his farm.

Monsanto on the other hand maintained that it held a patent on the genetically engineered seed, and so royalties had to be paid every time it was planted. In other words, you could not save the seed and use it the following year. Monsanto also maintained that royalties had to be paid no matter whether the seed was sown intentionally or not.

Throughout the seven-year legal battle, Schmeiser emphasized that he did not deliberately plant the Roundup Ready canola seed, but that it was volunteer canola (volunteer grain is not deliberately planted but usually blows onto a prairie field from another farm or a passing vehicle, etc.), and that he had the right to save his seed even though it had been contaminated with Monsanto's product.

At the root of this story is not only the corporate control of seed through patents, but also how easily genetically modified seed can contaminate fields of traditional seed crops. Today, Canada's canola crops are difficult to sell outside the country, particularly in Europe, because of concerns over GM-contaminated canola seed.

Country musician Doug Supernaw, 60:

Quote:

Country music singer Doug Supernaw, known for his hit 1993 single "I Don't Call Him Daddy," died of cancer on Friday at his home in Texas, his record label B&G Records confirmed in a statement. He was 60.

"Diagnosed in February 2019 with advanced stage four lung and bladder cancer, Doug began an aggressive treatment schedule with the hopes of shrinking his numerous cancer cells," the statement reads. "Fighting the good fight for almost two years, Doug's cancer had spread to his brain and spine, and he was placed in hospice care in October 2020."

In 1993, Supernaw was nominated by the Academy of Country Music Awards for top male vocalist and song of the year for his single "I Don't Call Him Daddy." His other notable tracks, "Reno" and "Not Enough Hours In The Night," also topped the country music charts during the '90s.

Soccer legend Diego Maradona dead at 60 - way too young. He had a troubled life off the field but what an incredible player who never lost sight of his impoverished beginnings in Buenos Aires. And despite his antics and bigger than life personality, he had lots of heart and knew who the enemy of the poor were. RIP El Pibe de Oro.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/diego-maradona-soccer-legend-dead-at-60...

Charley Pride, the first black country star, whose first records had to be sent to radio stations without his picture on them because that was the only way racist country DJs could be induced to play them, dead at age 86:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/charley-pride-died-country-music-star-dead-...

That is so very, very true.

Leo Panitch, May 3 1945-Dec 19, 2020.

Oof, this one hurts. Leo Panitch was a giant of the Canadian left and of the Canadian and international socialist movements. His close friend and comrade Sam Gindin wrote the following comments in the wake of Leo's passing.

Sam Gindin wrote:

Dearest friends/comrades,

Leo passed away this evening. Some five weeks ago he was hospitalized and diagnosed with multiple myeloma. While in the hospital he contracted Covid-19 and this developed into viral pneumonia.  The pneumonia made it near impossible for him to breathe and he spent his last hours in palliative care resting peaceably. 

The shock of Leo no longer being with us is impossible to fathom. He was a life force, a ubiquitous presence in private life, social life, intellectually and in socialist politics. In this moment, his absence just can't be  processed. Later  the time will come to organize a celebration of his life. 

Less than a week ago, before his health began its accelerated decline, Leo read Red Plenty referring to it as ‘one of best intellectual as well as literary experiences of my life’. In the last email I received from him he sent this passage from the book: 

‘What has come over me? Thought Sasha. He remembered a joke. What is a question mark? An exclamation mark in middle age. Maybe that was all this was, just his arrival at a time of life when the muscles of certainty begin to go slack and doubt naturally replaces vigour. Just the first delivery of the universal skepticism of old men. But then why did he find himself so much angrier than before?’   

Identifying with these sentiments was vintage Leo.  His ‘muscles of certainty’ were never in fact especially taut but as he grew older, there were more reasons for skepticism about our collective future. Yet Leo was constitutionally incapable of giving up. If he perpetually raised doubts to us about our ability to transform the world – as he did to the very end - it was because he was looking to us to convince him, and ourselves, otherwise. And whatever those doubts he found himself ‘so much angrier than before’ about the state of the world and so much more determined to carry on the struggle. 

Leo will remain a presence in our lives; as one friend said, the intensity of the pain is the flip side of the depth and intensity of what he brought to us. But his absence is at the same time a painful loss of friendship and creative energy. 

Leo’s death is of course most difficult for Melanie and their children Maxim and Vida.  Melanie has deeply appreciated the many moving and loving notes she has received, though it is obviously difficult to respond to each of them right now or to deal with phone calls. 

Best to all of you. We will be in touch again soon.

-

sam gindin

North of 60 actor Wilma Pelly, age 83:

Quote:

Canadian Indigenous actor Wilma Pelly, who was best known for her role as Elsie Tsa Che on the CBC series North of 60, died in Calgary on Dec. 28. Her family says the 83-year-old leaves a legacy of hard work and perseverance.

Pelly's daughters, Leeanna Rhodes and Stella Pelley, said their mother worked at a gardening centre and in factories before finding work as an extra in the early 1990s.

It led to 25 years of TV, film and theatre roles for Pelly — a consistent source of pride for her children.

"She had no training in being an actress or anything like that, but she nailed it," Pelley said.

"Nobody in our family had ever done anything like that, so we were really proud of her ... and she loved what she did."

Born Wilma Episkenew in Fort Qu'Appelle, Sask., on March 5, 1937, Pelly was a member of the Muscowpetung Saulteaux First Nation.

When she was four years old, Pelly was taken to a residential school in Lebret, Sask. She lived there for 12 years and experienced cruelty, her daughters said.

"They grabbed her young, very young," Rhodes said. "You know, she had a tough life ... but she persevered."

COVID-19 claimed another celebrity victim today with the death of Larry King at 87 years old.

A very good overview of his career from CBC:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/larry-king-obituary-1.5885208

This story is tragic. RIP Yassin Dabeh and deepest condolences to parents and siblings and the Syrian refugee community in London, Ontario.

Ontario teen who died of COVID-19 was refugee who worked as long-term care home cleaner

Yassin Dabeh, 19, worked as a cleaner at a long-term care home in the London, Ont., area. The Syrian refugee came to Canada with his family in 2016, one of five siblings, says Lebanese-Canadian businessman Mohamad Fakih. (Submitted by Mohamad Fakih)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/ontario-teen-staff-covid-death-1.5...

This beautiful and brilliant actress passed away yesterday and I thought it important to remember her.

Cloris Leachman, Oscar Winner and TV Comedy Star, Is Dead at 94

“The Last Picture Show” made her a star, but she may be best remembered for drawing laughs on “Mary Tyler Moore,” “Phyllis” and “Malcolm in the Middle.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/arts/television/cloris-leachman-dead....

She done good- so sad!

An 18-year-old woman drowned near a Minnesota dam after carrying several children to safety, police say

By Christina Maxouris, CNN

Updated 4:55 PM ET, Sat August 22, 2020 

Raina Lynn Neeland

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/22/us/minnesota-girl-drowns-child-rescue-trnd/