coming round the mountain when they come

The first time I met Ron Brown was at his home. Was in DC for the Morehouse Howard Game and one of my best Friends Dave “go-go” Gordon, was dating his daughter at the time. We sat around his kitchen table, he, go-go, his daughter and I and had breakfast. He was a funny cat, would later on that year go ahead to run Jesse Jackson Presidential campaign.

I never had the chance to met Mickey Leland. But I did work with folks, when I was a Research Specialist living in Southeastern Nigeria working with Africare that had. Congressman Leland founded the House Select Committee on Hunger in 1984 until his death in an airplane crash in Ethiopia.

Both of these men, as the current President elect defined the epitome of leadership, public service, dedication and more so than all else – intellect. They had a passion for life that showed in the manner in which they were committed to assisting and helping others. On April 3, 1994, as Leland, Ron Brown, then Commerce Secretary, along with 34 others also died when their Air Force plane crashed into a Croatian mountainside. He had gone to Croatia to broker a deal between Franjo Tudjman (a neo fascist) and the Enron Corporation.

I never quite was comfortable with Brown’s death being an accident for a number of reasons. First, in an effort to protect his son from prison, he threatens to expose an Asian fund raising plan operated by the Clinton White House's prior to this trip, which by the way had no Enron reps on board for they took their own aircraft. In addition, out of custom, the White House orders the Air Force to skip the "safety" phase of the investigation and move directly to the "accident" phase. Also strange was that the Croatian responsible for the airport's navigation system was found with a bullet hole in his chest.

No autopsy was performed on Brown after the crash albeit pictures were circulated that appeared to show a head wound that was similar to one that looked like a bullet hole. For it was bazaar that of all the 35 on board, Brown was the only one reported to have had died of "multiple blunt force injuries”. I can’t say that Brown or Leland were assassinated, albeit I think it was some strange stuff going on. Not to mention both of their planes did crash into the sides of mountains: one in Croatia and one in Ethiopia.

I just want to say folk, watch your back, the Capitol Hill and K street cats is some shady mutha fucas. And I will tell you this I will never forget fine folks, and Ron Brown and Mickey Leyland were just that. And I don’t want history to put you in the same sentence with them ever – never ever. And pleas do watch out for them mountainsides – they are killer.