Let me talk to you America

“Who you with?”
Bernard Jeffrey McCullough

Wow. Bernie Mac has passed. My family and I still watch the Bernie Mac show every evening. Bernie suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body's organs, but had said the condition went into remission in 2005. We need to be aware of sacrcoidosis people. It is highly prevelant in black folks and difficult to detect. He recently was hospitalized and treated for pneumonia, which his publicist said was not related to the disease.

Bernie's death Saturday coincided with the annual Bud Billiken Parade in Chicago, celebrating back to school. The Parade is a major event in the predominantly black South Side that the comedian had previously attended.

"It's truly the passing of one of our favorite sons," said Paula Robinson, president of the Black Metropolis National Heritage Area. "He was extremely innovative in putting his life experiences in comedic form and doing it without vulgarity. "He was an ambassador of Chicago's black community, and the national black community at large."

A public memorial is planned for noon Aug. 16 at The House of Hope church in Chicago, said Mac's publicist. Rest in peace Bernie.