Hey, hey, hey … someone's gonna pay
He dropped out of college to become a stand-up comic. During the '60s, he won six Grammy Awards for his comedy albums, and later won two more for his children's albums.
He was the first black actor to star in a dramatic role on network television – I Spy from 1965-68 – and won three Emmy Awards for his work.
He had the top-rated sitcom in The Cosby Show for five years in a row in the '80s. He was fondly referred to as America's Dad.
He created the iconic animated series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, basing the characters on those he knew growing up in Philadelphia.
He has been a movie star, a best-selling author and a television pitchman.
He became widely respected and revered … now he is reviled.
A beloved American icon is falling. Dr. Huxtable, it seems, was prescribing nonconsensual sex to his “patients.” If the dozens of women who have come forward are telling the truth, Bill Cosby is a serial sex abuser, taking advantage of his fame and trust to take advantage of women over the last several decades.
Networks are pulling reruns of his shows as allegations mount. Both NBC and Netflix have dropped new projects they were developing with him. Advertisers are distancing themselves from what they thought was a sure-bet persona that appealed to the masses.
Lawyers are mounting civil lawsuits. District attorneys across the nation are studying their options, though the statute of limitations in most of the allegations against him likely will prevent any criminal prosecution.
As the world has seen in other high-profile cases, bad behavior is not limited to average people. On the contrary, we all are human, we all have within us the power of good and evil; it is the choice to embrace one and reject the other that ultimately tells the story of our lives.
It is very sad to witness the undoing of someone we thought we knew so well. We don't want to believe the worst, and when witness after witness comes forward with similar allegations, we really want to call them copycats and opportunists. We want to cling to our long-held images of the person in question.
In this case, the stories of the women who claim to have been sexually abused by Cosby follow the same theme of violated trust, drugs and alcohol. There are far too many to simply dismiss.
What happens next is anybody's guess. Cosby has denied all the allegations, but seems unwilling to sit down and publicly explain things.
There is at least one case that allegedly happened recently enough that criminal prosecution is still possible. At the very least, Cosby faces numerous civil suits and likely will lose his fortune if all of them are successful. He has already lost his good standing in the consciousness of the American public. All the milestones, all the accolades, all the groundbreaking work he did – his overall reputation as one of the greatest and most diverse entertainers in American history – all will be forgotten. Instead, he will be most remembered for his misdeeds.
There are some who rejoice when they see the mighty fall, but most of us just want to believe in the best in people and we puzzle and struggle when something like this occurs. We don't want to accept the worst, because it challenges our ingrained perceptions and beliefs.
Personally, I would be happy if the dozens of women claiming to have been abused by Cosby suddenly appeared on television and collectively yelled, “April Fools!” or if Cosby himself appeared with an explanation about a detailed social experiment he was conducting with the help of these women to see how eager the public is to jump on the bandwagon against someone. Maybe it is intended to be the subject of a new documentary film he is producing.
Unfortunately, for Cosby and his accusers, it likely “is what it is.” And that is sad and tragic.
