http://nnpa.org/blacks-in-florida-still-victimized-by-stand-your-ground-by-freddie-allen/
http://nnpa.org/holder-favors-voting-rights-for-ex-felons-by-freddie-allen/
EXCLUSIVE
CHAVIS TO DEMOCRATS:
DECIDE
IF YOU WANT ME
by Cash Michaels
editor
In the
aftermath of last week’s political firestorm surrounding the nomination of Rev.
Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. as executive director of the North Carolina
Democratic Party, Chavis, who had his nomination temporarily withdrawn amid
false allegations from moderate and conservative Democrats, says he can and
will help the party muster up needed votes to win this fall.
But only if
the state party can overcome its internal differences and divisions, and unify
in asking him to help.
Meanwhile a
statewide petition is being circulated to Democrats, asking the NCDP Executive
Council to back Chairman Randy Voller in his efforts to recruit Chavis.
In an
exclusive interview with The Carolinian
and Wilmington Journal newspapers
Wednesday, Dr. Chavis said, “It is up to the [NCDP]…” if he is to become
executive director.
“I would
never try to impose my leadership on anyone or anything.”
Dr. Chavis says Chairman Voller,
whom he had known for only a short time since the Wilmington Ten Pardons of
Innocence Project and had supported as chair, approached Chavis with the offer
to become an interim NCDP executive director. Chavis was moving back home to
North Carolina to pursue other opportunities – particularly with helping
historically black colleges and universities - but says he was willing to lend
his talents and services to the NCDP in what is considered a crucial midterm
election year.
But once
word got out, it didn’t take long for Chavis to realize that those in the party
who opposed the progressive politics of Voller were moving swiftly to block the
nomination at all costs.
What
specifically surprised Chavis was that contrary to what he expected, there were
officers directly under the NCDP chairman who were opposed to his nomination as
E.D., and were also working to stop it.
“Some of
the people who opposed Voller used this as an opportunity to create their own
agenda,” Chavis said. “I thought that when the chairman of the [NC] Democratic
Party extended an overture, that his overture was representative of the
political will of at least a majority of the officials at the party.”
“I would
have never entertained the idea of becoming executive director of the NCDP if I
didn’t feel that it was a sincere overture,” Chavis continued, adding that
there are progressive, moderate and conservative divisions within the party.
Chavis said Chairman Voller had hoped to unite
all factions of the party around a massive voter registration effort, which
needed to start immediately in order to generate enough of a statewide base to
carry the Democrats to victory in November.
The key was
to do what the Obama campaign successfully did in 2008, namely bring new voters
into the base. With a tight statewide race between incumbent Democratic Senator
Kay Hagan and any Republican on the line, and GOP redistricting essentially
making almost every Republican-led voting district bulletproof on the state and
congressional levels, Chavis said his previous experience at running voter registration
campaigns on national, regional and statewide levels, plus his skills
communicating with young people through his Hip Hop Action Network with Russell
Simmons, was the NCDP’s best hope of taking North Carolina back from the Republicans
this year.
Chavis said
if you total the number of black, Latino and young potential voters who are not
registered in the state, it adds up to approximately one million. Unless the
NCDP devises an effective outreach to capture the lion’s share of these
unregistered groups, its chances of winning back North Carolina are slim.
Chavis said
he was willing to devote himself to that task for his home state, and the NCDP.
Given the negative impact on the state since the Republicans took over in 2012,
he saw it as an imperative that he does all he can to help turn the tide.
And of key
interest to Chavis is working on economic development issues across the state,
so that low-wealth communities could grow and prosper.
“My motive
was to come to serve the people of North Carolina, to serve institutions of
higher learning, and to serve those, heretofore, whose rights have been denied
and suppressed,” Chavis said.
But before
his plane could touch down at RDU International Airport Tuesday, Feb. 11th,
Democrats opposed to Voller’s leadership mobilized a concerted media and online
campaign to relitigate not only past allegations of sexual harassment against
Chavis from his days as executive director of the NAACP twenty years ago, but
also his brief membership in the Nation of Islam subsequently.
On social
media sites like Facebook and Blue NC, Democrats identifying themselves as
Jewish immediately labeled Chavis as “anti-Semitic” because of his association
with NOI leader Min. Louis Farrakhan, who has a history of making inflammatory
statements about alleged Jewish mistreatment of blacks.
With the
exception of a late interview which aired too late to make a difference, Chavis
was not afforded an effective platform or opportunity to answer the charges,
and ended up asking Chairman Voller to with draw his nomination, possibly to
regroup in 30 days.
Chavis says
though there was a settlement of a sexual harassment allegation when he was
executive director of the NAACP in 1994, it was a “totally false” allegation,
with no admission of guilt.
“We live in
a litigious society where sometimes people will try to extort money from an
organization or a person by making false allegations,” Chavis insisted. “None
of though allegations were ever proven to be true.”
Chavis also
vehemently denied charges of anti-Semitism (hating Jewish people), saying that
in his many ventures across the country and the world, he works with Jews
“almost every day. He adds that his critics would be hardpressed to find any
statements by him expressing hatred of Jewish people, because he’s never made
any.
Chavis said
he hasn’t been a member of the NOI for years, and is a member of Oak Level
United Church of Christ in Manson, NC, where the Rev. Leon White is the pastor.
And then
this week, Gary Pearce, currently involved in entertainer Clay Aiken's
congressional campaign, and former press secretary to Gov. Jim Hunt when Hunt
refused to pardon Chavis and the Wilmington Ten in 1978, posted the false
assertion that Barack Obama has “disavowed” support from Chavis during his 2008
presidential campaign.
Chavis not
only refuted the false allegation (Obama did disavow his former pastor Rev.
Jeremiah Wright and Min Farrakhan), but added that he and Obama worked together
in Chicago when the president was still a community organizer there.
As of press
time, Mr. Pearce had not retracted his false allegation, nor apologized for the
error.
Chavis what
has happened in the past week proves that there is a fear in North Carolina
that is not just generated by Republicans, and that’s what has North Carolina
“trending backwards.”
“If the
[NCDP] wants me to serve [as executive director], I am open to that overture,”
Chavis said Wednesday, “but it’s up to them.”
“I’m not
going to stand still.”
This week,
a statewide petition letter, addressed to the NCDP State Executive Council, and
circulated this week by Gracie Galloway, Democratic chairperson of the Eighth
Congressional District, not only denounces the attacks on Dr. Chavis, leveled
against him in a concerted effort by moderate NC Democratic party members, but
challenges those members to own up to the party’s own misdeeds of sexual
harassment coverup and criminal corruption by elected officials, before they
judge the civil rights leader.
The petition, authored by Galloway, also reasserts
the chairman’s right to not only terminate an employee, but then hire a
replacement, subject, according to the NCDP’s Plan of Organization, to the
approval of the State Executive Council, “…to serve at the pleasure of the
state chair.”
Galloway,
who is located on Facebook, says she wants Democrats to sign the letter, and
send it to Chairman Voller at NC Democratic Party Headquarters.
Galloway
calls what happened to Dr. Chavis, “ a travesty.”
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TRIANGLE NEWS BRIEFS – 2-20-14
AUTHORITIES PROBE
WAKE STUDENT NUDE PHOTOS
Parents are
alarmed at news of nude photos of several Wake County high schoolers that have
shown up on Instagram and Twitter this week. According to published reports,
the photos are of both girls and boys, with at least one photo showing sexual
interaction. At presstime, police haven’t made any arrests, but are tracing the
links to the pictures. The students are believed to attend Enloe, Athens, Holly
Springs, Heritage, Rolesville and Middle Creek high schools. The problem was
first discovered by a Wake Forest parent who found a picture of her daughter
online. Police are asking parents to talk to their children about the dangers
of taking nude photographs, and putting them on the Internet.
WAKE SCHOOL MAKEUP
DAYS WON’T CHANGE SCHEDULE MUCH
Wake County school leaders have announced
that makeup time for the school days missed due to inclement weather on
February 12-14, 2014, will require only the cancellation of Early Release on
Friday, March 7, 2014. The district will be able to meet the required 1,025
hours of instruction, by keeping the make-up days already announced, changing
the March 7 early release day to a full day, and using banked hours that are
already in our scheduled days. Go to
http://www.wcpss.net/parents/calendars/2013-14/make-up.html
for full list of make up days.
WAKE COMMISSIONERS,
SCHOOL BOARD TO MEET FRIDAY
In an
effort to forge a better relationship, members of the Republican-led Wake Board
of Commissioners and the Democrat-majority Wake School Board are scheduled to
meet Friday. The two boards have clashed in the past, especially when
commissioners have tried to legislatively take ownership and management of Wake
school system properties. Commissioners say they may try again. Meantime, the
two boards seem to be coming to an agreement about funding for schools set to
open in 2016. Commissioners have been withholding funds, saying that the school
board needed to prove school construction would be cost effective.
-30-
STATE NEWS BRIEFS – 2-20-14
CHARLOTTE MAYOR
OFFERS HELP TO WORKER FIRED BECAUSE OF MCCRORY
[CHARLOTTE]
Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon has offered to help a man who was fired because
he mouthed off at Gov. McCrory to find another job. Drew Swope was terminated
from his job at Reid’s Fine Foods Sunday after Gov. McCrory’s security detail
told the owner Swope told the governor “Thanks for nothing” when McCrory
visited the store and said he didn’t need nay help. Swope, a Democrat, alleges
that McCrory, a Republican, began yelling at him, though the governor’s people
deny that. Mayor Cannon says he’s spoken to Swope, and is only trying to “help
a constituent” find a job in the private sector.
NC APPEALS COURT
RULES STATE CRIMINAL DATABASE PUBLIC RECORD
[RALEIGH]
According to a recent ruling by a three-judge panel of the NC Court of Appeals,
the state’s criminal records database is public record, and the public should
have access to it upon request. The ruling overturns lower-court decisions that
deemed those records the province of the local clerk of court’s office.
REPUBLICAN SENATE
CANDIDATE MISLED INVESTORS, SAYS JURY
[RALEIGH]
Not a good week for Republican US Senate candidate Greg Bannon. Not only was it
reported that he over $8,000 behind in paying his Wake County property taxes,
but now a Wake County jury has decided that Bannon defrauded two investors in
his startup company. The jury passed judgment after two weeks of testimony and
eight hours of deliberation. Bannon is vying for the GOP nomination to unseat
US Sen. Kay Hagan in the fall. He was hoping to defeat state Speaker of the
House Thom Tillis in the May primary.
-30-
CASH IN THE APPLE FOR 2-20-14
By Cash Michaels
SOMETHING IS WRONG – Something is indeed wrong in the
state of Florida, where grown men are able to shoot and kill young black
teenagers at will, and the law allows them to get away with it.
Last year it was the Trayvon Martin case, and his killer, George Zimmerman, has been waltzing around without a care in the
world ever since.
Michael Dunn
is so lucky. Dunn, who fatally shot black teenager Jordan Davis last year at a
Florida gas station while Davis and his friends were listening to music, was
convicted last weekend of three counts of attempted murder for shooting into a
vehicle where Davis and his friends were.
But the Florida jury couldn’t reach a verdict on Dunn
killing an unarmed Davis. Makes no sense, until you factor in clear evidence
and writings of Michael Dunn that he sees all black male youth as thugs and
threats. The man makes up seeing a gun, justifies first-degree murder, and at
least one juror buys it, and Dunn, who is white, gets off the most serious
charge.
He will be tried again for it, and he will serve at
least 60 years in prison for the attempted murder charges (if he lives that
long), but the fact of the matter is we see clear evidence of black life being
cheap in this nation, and by all accounts, Jordan Davis’ life had tremendous
value to it. He wasn’t “a thug.” He had no criminal record. He came from a good
two-parent household.
Yes, there’s tremendous black-on-black violence
amongst our youth, and the community struggles to deal with that.
But that doesn’t give anyone the right to feel that
they, too, can just arbitrarily aim, click and fires…and ultimately get away
with.
Those days have to end.
NC DEMOCRATS, HYPOCRISY AND BEN CHAVIS - A tragedy took place last week, and it
deserves insight, reflection and perspective.
Last week it was announced that Randolph Voller, the chairman of what is clearly a divided NC Democratic Party which has been at war with itself since he
took over the reins over a year ago, had fired the party’s executive director, Robert Dempsey.
No official reason was given, though subsequent
reports suggest Voller wasn’t pleased with the job Dempsey was doing. It should
be noted that none of our esteemed members of the major local media have
bothered to look into the possible reasons, and never, apparently, asked any of
their sources within the party about why Dempsey had to go.
Almost immediately, however, because of tweets from
the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis, and
Chairman Voller over the weekend, by Monday it was determined that Dr. Chavis
would be replacing Mr. Dempsey as party executive director. A press conference
at NC Democratic Party (NCDP) headquarters was scheduled for Wednesday to make
the official announcement.
That gave powerful forces in the elitist wings of the
NCDP enough time to mount an effective counteroffensive, and devise a plot to
smear Dr. Chavis with his past association with the Nation of Islam; with false
allegations of his being anti-Semitic (meaning he hated Jews because of the NOI
association); and also smearing Chavis with past allegations of sexual
harassment from his days as executive director of the NAACP.
Yes, there were allegations, and yes, there was a
court settlement. But no, nowhere in those court papers do you find an
admission of guilt on the part of Chavis. And, in fact, he even says today that
the allegations were false when they were made 20 years ago.
Chavis’ denial was never reported in any of the
scandal-hungry local media when the controversy began.
By Tuesday, the controversy was full flame. Elitist
Democrats were now using social media to further tar and feather Ben Chavis for
allegations dating back 20 years. Local media were busy digging up, or being
handed old articles and accusations to use to further build a case against Chavis
being executive director. Jewish Democrats were declaring Chavis anti-Semitic
and unfit – end of story. Emails from members of the Democratic Women of NC
were referring to the negative articles about the man as justification for
opposing Chavis. Party elders deliberately referred to Chavis as “Muhammad,”
his former Muslim surname, as if to suggest he was still a member of the Nation
of Islam, when in fact he had left the NOI almost ten years ago.
And Gary
Pearce, who was once press secretary to Gov. Jim Hunt in the late 1970’s when Hunt refused to pardon Ben
Chavis when he was in prison for a crime he didn’t commit during the Wilmington Ten case, got on his
blog and called Rev. Chavis “…the most divisive, controversial figure” Chairman
Voller could find to be executive director.
By the time Ben Chavis got off the plane in Raleigh
Tuesday afternoon, he was facing a well-organized NC Democratic Party
opposition that Chairman Voller had absolutely no control over, which was a
huge mistake and gross miscalculation.
Virtually no one in the media, or as part of the
NCDP, thought to look to see what Chavis had been doing for the past 20 years,
or 10 years, or five year, or even within the past year, to balance the record.
Virtually no one thought to do that, except anchor Pam Saulsby with WNCN-TV News. She
caught up with Rev. Chavis soon after he arrived, and taped a sitdown interview
with him, putting the tough questions to him, and giving him a chance to answer
his critics. Of all of the so-called “journalists” this week, Pam Saulsby was
the only true journalist to do her job – giving a controversial figure a fair
opportunity to answer his critics…truly giving both sides of the story.
Chavis told Saulsby how he was no longer a member of
the Nation of Islam, having left the group many years ago. He said that he was
not guilty of sexual harassment allegations, and that sometimes, people target
high profile leaders with those charges, knowing that that places then in
untenable situations.
Saulsby gave Chavis some of the due process he
deserved, but it was too late. By the time the interview aired, the Executive
Council of the NC Democratic Party, in a raucous session, had already voted by
teleconference to appoint an interim executive director for thirty days.
Chairman Voller, at the request of Ben Chavis, did
not submit Chavis’ name given the uproar. Voller says he may still do so later,
but that’s extremely doubtful
NC Democratic Party members are now slapping
themselves on the back fro keeping that “no good Chavis-Muhammad-sexual-harasser-fella
from becoming executive director. After all, we don’t need a racist and sexual
harasser running our party.”
Well, members of the NC Democratic Party, time to
give you some truth right about now. First of all, I am not pleased with the
sloppy, ill-advised way Chairman Randolph Voller handled this whole affair. It
was Mickey Mouse and unprofessional from the word go, and if given the
opportunity, I’ll tell him (in fact, as of this writing, I have), because in
the interim, a good man and courageous leader was wounded and lynched this
week… a man who has tremendous courage and dignity, and has a solid record of
bring people, and especially young people of all stripes and backgrounds
together, who could truly help what can only be described as a crippled NCDP so
weak and directionless that long before Randolph Voller took over as chairman,
it literally handed the Republicans control of this state for at least the next
six years because its Democratic past Democratic speaker of the House and one
of his lieutenants were convicted of corruption and sent to prison; and because
its past chairman allegedly paid hush money to a former staffer who had been
allegedly sexually harassed by the then party executive director.
All of this happened in just the past five years, and
no Democrat enjoys having that nonsense thrown back in their face without a
fair hearing, but those same Democrats were more than willing to convict a man
for allegations dating back 20 years ago, without a fair hearing…without due
process. Somehow, that doesn’t make sense.
Oh, and racism…Ben Chavis is (supposedly) an
anti-Semite because of his past association with the Nation of Islam in the
1990’s? I might remind the NCDP that back in 2006, you were forced to apologize
to the African-American community of this great state for the fact that in
1898, white supremacist leaders of your party decided Democrats could no longer
tolerate black economic and political progress, and, employing the Ku Klux
Klan, ravaged the mostly black city of Wilmington, NC in November 1898,
shooting black people on the streets, chasing black businesspeople from their
homes and properties at gunpoint, and taking over the city government by force,
ushering in the era that became known as Jim Crow.
So who do you have now, NC Democrats? You hate your
chairman, the big money bags have stopped giving cash to the party, your
reputation has been in shambles for at least the past five years, you’ve lost
control of the Governor’s Mansion and the General Assembly with no real hope of
getting it back, you’re fighting each other more than you’re fighting
Republicans, you’ve now lynch mobbed a man without due process… and you wonder
why more and more people are disgusted with both you and the Republicans, and
changing their political party registration to NO political party registration?
Well, I’m joining them!
My core value system is freedom, justice, equality …and
truth. Anything or anyone I’m associated with has to reflect some, if not most
of those core values. And when I find out, without question, that those values
are not reflected in my association, I cut ties, because I will not cast a
blind eye to hypocrisy.
The question is, if the NC Democratic Party continues
with this clown show and lynch mob party, then how many others are you going to
send away from your ranks?
And if any of what I’ve just said you think was wrong
or unfair…well, now you know how Ben Chavis feels.
Make sure you tune in every Thursday
afternoon at 4 p.m. for my talk radio show, ''Make It Happen'' on Power 750
WAUG-AM, or online at www.myWAUG.com.
And read more about my thoughts and opinions exclusively at my blog, ‘The Cash
Roc” (http://thecashroc.blogspot.com/2011/01/cash-roc-begins.html).
I promise it will be interesting.
Cash in the Apple - honored as the Best
Column Writing of 2006 by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
Columnist Cash Michaels was also honored by the NNPA for Best Feature Story
Journalist of 2009, and was the recipient of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP’s
President’s Award for Media Excellence in Sept. 2011.
And coming in April, 2014, the NNPA-CashWorks
HD Productions documentary presentation of, “Pardons of Innocence: The
Wilmington Ten.”
Until next week, keep a smile on your face,
GOD in your heart, and The Carolinian in your life. Bye, bye.
-30-
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