Farewell, Richard Pryor

I just heard that Richard Pryor has passed away. He will be missed and mourned.

An artist in the purest sense, he understood the power of words. He popularized the use of the "N" word, a word so powerful that now days people are afraid to use it, so fearful of confronting the past in which is was forged. So fearful of the rage it summons in those who have built their own cells from it, empowering it and the ignorance it once stood for.

Pryor's sketch on Saturday Night Live - "Word Association" with Chevy Chase has to rate on all lists exccept those compiled by the most craven of buffoons (hear me, "E!"?) as the greatest sketch in the history of that institution (how bloodless we have become in our middle years, eh?)

He co-wrote "Blazing Saddles" with Mel Brooks, and was set to play the sheriff "Bart" until the studio decided he was too edgy for that role, giving the talented Cleavon Little his greatest taste of success.

The last time I saw him was a cameo in "Mad Dog Time"...a film too sophisticated for most tastes in its clever mockery of the Rat Pack. That he played a gravedigger was a statement as to the path he knew he was already upon, wasting away from Multiple Sclerosis.

Richard, man.

No, that's it. Man.

Not perfect, but a man who made the world understand, if only too short a while, the power of words. He wasn't the black Lenny Bruce. Lenny was the white Richard Pryor.