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Things sort of soured since we last met. The President called for the American people to exercise discipline as he grappled with inflation, energy, unemployment, rising prices, and up and down foreign policy; he asked for patience to be exercised as he tried to sweat out a hostage crisis in Iran and then ole Jimmy, never one for knowing how to spring things, did it again when he called a press conference to tell us about his and our problems. His pronouncement cost him the New York and Connecticut primaries.

The grim reaper decimated our leaders, calling them to their eternal rest: A. Phillip Randolph, the venerable Negro labor leader; Ambassador Andrew Young was forced to resign his post at the United Nations; this brought out in the open the argument of whether or not Blacks should speak out on American foreign policy; the Shah of Iran, forced out of his country by his people, came to the United States for medical treatment. This caused the revolutionists in his country to invade the U.S. Embassy and made hostages of the U.S. legation; the Russians invaded Afghanistan and President Jimmy Carter retaliated by asking Americans and all others who would listen to boycott the forthcoming Olympics; a group of Black leaders led by the Reverend Jesse Jackson went to Israel hoping to open up a dialogue on the PLO question; of course, Begin rebuffed them; the rift widened between Blacks and Jews in this country over the treatment afforded Andrew Young and Blacks insisted on their rights to speak out on American foreign policy. Then, there was a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan.

Here, closer to this desk in New York City, Ed Koch, the Jewish Mayor, who has been carrying on an open battle with Blacks in this town ever since his election, further showed his insensitivity to their problems by insulting them. Koch claimed that Andy Young and Ambassador Donald McHenry, his successor, were "anti-vicious" against the Israeli cause. Later at a Reporters' Ball, Mayor Koch put on an Afro wig and performed a skit roasting the Black politicians of this city. The Koch show was so detestable that Congressman Charles Rangel, who had opposed Koch's moves to close two hospitals in Harlem, walked out of the affair in anger and disgust. A "roast" to which more than 500 friends from all over the United States attended was held for the popular dentist James P. "Rumps" Jones.

Among those who went to glory since we last met were: D. Parke Gibson and Berkerly Burrell, outstanding consultants on advances in the corporate and business fields; Luke Easter, of Negro Baseball fame; the great Jesse Owens of Olympic miracles; Bob Douglass of Renaissance Basketball fame; Emmett Ashford, the first Negro to umpire in organized baseball; Clarence Muse, the compose of "Sleepy Time Down South," and a veteran movie actor; Reverend Sandy Ray and Bishop Herbert Bell Shaw of the African Methodist Zion Church; Sherman Briscoe of the Negro Publishers Association; and Louise Fisher Morris of Utilities Club fame.

On the national political scene -- the Republicans started out with seven guys including Ronald Reagan, who had barely missed the last time around; George Bush, a formidable challenger; Governor Connolly, who spent the most money and was to be left at the post and a real comer in a Congressman from Illinois named John Anderson.

The Democrats countered with three guys named Carter, Kennedy and Brown.

Connolly, the ex-Democrat, turned Republican, got away fast but faltered along the way; Bush came from the rear as did Anderson; together, these boys gave Governor Reagan a race. With the fallouts the race centered on Reagan and Bush with Anderson holding the third spot and deliberating over continuing his efforts as a third party candidate.

On the Democratic side, incumbent Jimmy Carter, who, on hearing of Senator Kennedy's threat to run, proclaimed that he "would whip the Senator's ass." The fight started off that way too.

President Jimmy won the first seventeen primaries entered into against Kennedy and was making good his boast; then Kennedy won Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut which enabled him to continue in the race. Governor Brown dropped out to plan his assault on the office in '84.

Those who knew him and those who adored his feats at the Berlin Olympics came to Chicago to say farewell to the great Jesse Owens. I remembered Jesse, as a student at Morehouse College, where we listened to the reports of his triumph via the radio.

However, in spite of all the glory he bestowed on the U.S., and his great embarrassment to Adolph Hitler, Jesse had to ride in the back of the bus when he returned home. Even President Roosevelt failed to give him his dues and Jesse was forced to earning a living racing horses and making it the best way he could.

President Gerald Ford presented Owens with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976 and in 1979 President Carter gave Owens the Living Legend Award.

And in the let's tell it as it is department . . . the boys were saying that Jimmy Carter lost the Black vote in New York because of a rising tide of resentment by Blacks for Mayor Koch, his chief spokesman in this area. They are also saying that Blacks will soon begin to desert Senator Kennedy when the real story on how he turned on Ed Brooke is told.

The people on these streets in Harlem are wary of that plan of the voluntary hospitals to take over the municipal. The scam was uncovered when what was formerly known as Joint Disease Hospital in Harlem came up all of a sudden as North General with the folks at City Hall bent on supporting the move.

A Manhattan Supreme Court judge in New York ruled that CORE could begin seeking funds again. The so-called Miller report which was supposed to cook the goose of the President of HUDC was received and thrown out by the executive board, so the battle to replace the chairman of the board whom the folks are saying was around during the destruction of 125th Street, is on. The president finally woke up and imposed some sanctions on Iran. Now, do something about unemployment among Black youths, Jimmy.