Colin Powell, RIP

GEN Colin Luther Powell, U.S. Army (Retired), and former Secretary of State, has died at the age of 84. I first became aware of him as a student in high school when he was named Deputy National Security Advisor following the Iran-Contra affair and made the prediction to one of my teachers (who'd never heard from him at that point) that the first black President might be a Republican (and that was a bit of a shot in the dark as I didn't know his party affiliation) then serving as a Lieutenant General in the Army. With Operation Just Cause and the first Gulf War everyone soon became aware of Powell and that teacher later told my younger brother he couldn't believe how uncanny my prediction had been.

Powell wasn't the first black officer to rise to four-star rank in the U.S. military -- he was the fifth, and the first to become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That's pretty remarkable for the son of Jamaican immigrants who couldn't use the front door in some of the restaurants outside of Fort Benning, Georgia, when he was a newly commissioned Lieutenant. He was, admittedly, a political General, spending more time than usual in Washington, D.C. and less than-typical time with troops as a senior officer, but he'd served two tours in Vietnam and received a Purple Heart for his wounds (he was also, interestingly, the first Ranger-qualified Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff).

Following retirement from the Army he flirted with a political run (earning me credibility with that former teacher) but ultimately never throwing his hat in the ring out of respect to his wife Alma, who reportedly feared that doing so might make him a target for assignation. He did serve as Secretary of State in the Bush Administration and was key in pushing the Iraq invasion, later backtracking on that, somewhat less that candidly in the opinion of many. He later endorsed a string of Democrats for President, for which many are castigating him today.

Colin Powell was fairly unabashed in describing himself as a "Rockefeller Republican." Nelson Rockefeller died over forty years ago so that term has little meaning today but it refers to the country club crowd who for many years controlled the Republican Party and despised Conservatives like Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. They were largely indistinguishable from Democrats and, in fact, many of them later became Democrats except in places like my home state of South Carolina where many Democrat politicians have become Republicans (at least In Name Only) because it better serves their political interests for things like elections and committee chairmanships). Powell didn't do that but, rather, remained a Republican while often supporting Democrats in ways similar to some friends of mine from an earlier generation who will say that they're Southern Democrats but haven't actually supported a Democrat at the national level for decades.

In sum, I mourn the passing of a soldier who served his country long and well and achieved remarkable things as well as a man who described himself as an "old Prayer Book Episcopalian." I disagreed with many of his politics but still found much to admire and hope that he rests in peace and rises in glory and that God will comfort his family at this time.