Tragically, as long as I’m in Texas, this probably won’t be the last time I’ll write about senseless gun deaths.

When I read the comments, emails and tweets sent to me about anything Texas-related, much of the feedback is about how terrible this state is, how the United States should return Texas to Mexico, and how the people writing will never set foot inside the Lone Star State.

Look, I get it. But one of these days, I’ll write about all the good things happening here. For example, Texas Woman’s University just got a $15 million donation to set up an aviation school to encourage more women to become pilots and enter aviation leadership roles. That’s pretty cool. (If y’all Texas readers ever have ideas for positive stories, let me know!)

Here’s another Texas story I’ve been thinking about, after Tina Turner’s death this week at the age of 83: It was here in Dallas that Tina escaped the horrible abuse of her husband, Ike Turner. In July 1976, she fled from him after a bad fight, crossing the I-30 highway on foot in a blood-spattered suit and sunglasses. She checked herself in to what was then a Ramada Inn. Soon afterward, she made her way to Los Angeles and filed for divorce. The Dallas Morning News has a great write-up of this bit of history, and it’s worth a read.

Global Radar: Returning African bronzes and bodies

For my column this week, I wrote about the complicated return of the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria. Questions surrounding the repatriation of stolen colonial artifacts always interest me. In the late 1800s, British forces violently raided the Benin palace, killed dozens of people and seized the bronze works, which are now housed in museums around the world. Museum institutions in Germany, the United States and Britain have begun returning the bronzes, but one of the largest holders of the artifacts, the British Museum, has so far resisted, arguing that it is restricted by law from doing so. My opinion: They’re clearly doing their best to hang on to their loot.

The British are also insisting on keeping African royal bodies. This week, the news broke that Buckingham Palace is refusing to return the remains of Prince Dejatch Alemayehu, who died in 1879 at age 18 and is buried at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, England. Alemayehu was taken to England from Abyssinia — now known as Ethiopia — after the British subjugated the country in 1868. His father, Emperor Tewodros II, killed himself after the city of Magdala was captured; his mother died en route to England. The British also took so many looted treasures, religious items and manuscripts from the East African country that it required “15 elephants and 200 mules to carry them from Magdala to the nearest sea port,” according to a report in the Independent.

Ethiopian campaigners have long asked for the prince to be returned. But Buckingham Palace released a statement saying it will not agree to the request because “it is very unlikely that it would be possible to exhume the remains without disturbing the resting place of a substantial number of others in the vicinity,” and chapel authorities want to preserve the “dignity of the departed.”

So, let me get this straight: The British are keeping the remains of a captured child prince out of respect for “dignity.” Talk about insulting. Send the prince back to where he belongs!

Fun Zone: When the royal DEI is not DEI’ing

Speaking of the British, the internet has been having a field day with these photos of Catherine, Princess of Wales, visiting with schoolchildren at the Chelsea Flower Show:

It reminds me of the poor optics from Prince William and Catherine’s cringeworthy Caribbean tour last year:

Given the allegations about racism in the royal family and the public abuse Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, suffered as a mixed-race member of that family, it’s almost like the kids are on to something. Of course, we’re all projecting, but maybe this is PR karma for stealing young African princes.

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