Ben Jealous: Among the powerful voices we lost in 2024, Louis Gossett Jr.’s echoes loudly

(TriceEdneyWire.com)—It was my last year as national president of the NAACP, at the end of 2013 Image Awards. I was with my dear friend Louis Gossett Jr., the actor and activist who won an Oscar for his role in the film “An Officer and a Gentleman.” Lou said to me, “You know, Ben, I’ve been in this racial justice movement my whole life, but you know, sometimes, brother, I feel like we’re fighting over who’s in first class. What we should be doing is looking out the window, because the plane has fallen like 20,000 feet in the last two minutes.” He saw I was a little confused. So he continued, “The planet is dying. It doesn’t matter who’s in first class on a dead planet.”& Lou’s words have stuck with me for over a decade. It was Lou’s voice echoing in my ear that inspired me to get back into the environmental movement and take my current job as the head of the Sierra Club. December is the customary month of remembrance. A time of year we take stock; a moment on the calendar when we pause to reflect on the giants we have lost. Louis Gossett Jr. is...