NNPA STORIES -
SPECIAL NOTE - I've changed a line in Cash in the Apple per the Wilmington Ten update to the following:
Next week on Dec. 27th, we will be loading up the bus in Wilmington to bring surviving members of the Wilmington Ten and their supporters back to the State Capital in Raleigh to make our closing statement to Gov. Perdue.
I've made it bold in the copy below. Please change accordingly.
Thank you.
-30-
W-ed- THE SEASON FOR TRUTH
Those
of us who celebrate the Christmas season, know that thousands of years ago,
GOD’s Word tells us a child was born to Mary and Joseph in the little town of
Bethlehem. That child’s name was Jesus, and He was born to save the world from
its sins.
We
call the story of the birth of our Lord and Savior, the “Gospel,” because it
is, and always will be, the “good news.” And in the Christian world, all of us
consider the Gospel to be …the truth.
And
so it is, amid controversies over the fiscal cliff, and the senseless, mass
murder of twenty innocent children, that we still seek the truth.
That
is why, for the past seven months, we have fought mightily to seek pardons of
innocence from Gov. Beverly Perdue for the Wilmington Ten. You see, the truth is the truth,
regardless of whether you see it or not, or recognize it as such.
And
yet, in order for the truth to have meaning in our lives, we are compelled to
recognize it as such.
That
is what we’ve been working mightily to do over the past year – making sure that
the public, and ultimately Gov. Perdue, finally recognize the truth about one
of the most controversial cases in North Carolina’s criminal justice history.
Thus
far, thanks to the GOD-blessed coalition work of the Wilmington Ten Pardons of
Innocence Project, the NCNAACP, and other lovers of freedom, justice and
equality, we’ve been able to turn a significant portion of the media, and
ultimately the public that has paid attention thus far, towards the truth.
The
power of our evidence has been
hard to deny.
The
truth usually is.
So
we are down to the final days for our Governor to discover the truth, recognize
it, and ultimately act on it.
And
we hope and pray that she does so in the spirit of the season, and a spirit of
justice.
As
the people of Abraham spent forty years in the wilderness before they found the
Promised Land, so have the Wilmington Ten. After being falsely convicted and
sentenced to the wilderness for crimes they did not commit, it has taken this
long to uncover new evidence showing the way …to the truth.
We
are hopeful that the truth about how the man who falsely prosecuted the
Wilmington Ten will truly …set them free.
So,
as we quickly approach the day we designate as the birth of Jesus Christ, we
hope, and pray, that not long afterwards, we will here the truth confirmed by
our governor.
The
Wilmington Ten are innocent!
What
greater Christmas present can there be for the six surviving members, and the
families of the four deceased members.
There
is still time to help Gov. Perdue recognize “the truth,” and make this
Christmas wish a reality, even if it comes a week or two afterwards.
Please
write her at:
The
Honorable Beverly Eaves Perdue
Governor
of North Carolina
116
West Jones Street
Raleigh,
NC 27603
As
she leaves office after four years of standing strong on the issues that are
most important to our community, ask Gov. Perdue to add to that illustrious record,
and to an outstanding legacy, by making her very last decision in office…an
historic truth.
Ask
her to grant pardons of innocence to the Wilmington Ten.
From
all of us here at the Wilmington Journal, Merry Christmas to our readers, our
community, and our sponsors.
Spread
the good news that Christ the Savior is born!
-30-
EXCLUSIVE
BEN CHAVIS ON WHAT
HAPPENED
FEB. 6TH ,
1971
Special to The
Wilmington Journal
In
preparation for reporting the recollections of Rev. Eugene Templeton, the
former pastor of Gregory Congregation Church here in Wilmington, we asked Dr.
Benjamin Chavis, who was with Rev. Templeton that fateful day of Saturday, Feb.
6, 2012, what his recollections were.
Here
is that exchange, exclusive for The
Wilmington Journal:
WJ
- On the evening of Feb. 6th,
1971, the night that Mike’s Grocery was firebombed, Rev. Templeton says you
were with him and his wife Donna. Do you remember what you were doing?
DR.
CHAVIS - On the early evening and night of Saturday, February
6, 1971, I was inside the home of Reverend Eugene and Mrs. Donna Templeton,
which was the two-story small frame house church parsonage next door to Gregory
Congregational United Church of Christ on Nun Street in the heart of the
African American community of Wilmington, NC.
Someone that evening knocked on the front door to the
parsonage and informed Reverend Templeton that Mike's Grocery Store, one
block away on a different street, was on fire. At the time of the
knock on the front door, Rev. Templeton, Mrs. Donna Templeton and I were
sitting together at the kitchen table having a cup of coffee and I had just got
off the telephone with Wilmington Police Chief Williamson, urging him to ask
the Mayor of Wilmington to declare a curfew in Wilmington to prevent and
to stop armed white vigilantes from entering into the Black community in
Wilmington, to indiscriminately shoot semiautomatic firearms, set random fires
and to cause great injury and fear among the law abiding Black
residents of Wilmington.
The police chief refused to consider my plea for
a curfew. Gregory Church and the church parsonage were being
shot at repeatedly on that Saturday night by those well-armed
vigilantes who called themselves the ROWP (Rights of White People
Organization).
After hearing what was said at the door about the fire
at Mike's Grocery, the three of us pause to hold hands and prayed to God
in the name of Jesus Christ for grace, mercy and justice. We remained in
the house that evening together and did not go outside the house except
for a brief period after about two hours later, when a subsequent knock on the
parsonage front door occurred to inform us that Mike's store had burned to
the ground and now a residence that was next door to Mike's Grocery was on fire
and that there was an elderly woman still inside of that house..... so I went
quickly outside that parsonage at that point to help rescue the elderly
woman from her burning house, and also to help remove furniture from the
burning house to the sidewalk in front of her house.
I returned back to the church parsonage to meet again
with Rev. Templeton shortly thereafter, and spent the night in the second
floor of the parsonage in Rev. Templeton's study where there was a small bed.
WJ – The following
day, Feb. 7, 1971, you and Rev. Templeton had church service, and then all of
you left Gregory, driving to Raleigh, before the National Guard stormed the
church.
DR. CHAVIS - The shooting [by white vigilantes] at the
church and at the surrounding homes there on Nun Street continued throughout
that Saturday night and into the morning of Sunday, February 7, 1971.
It was too dangerous to have a full worship service on
that Sunday morning... so there was a short abbreviated worship service at
11a.m. At about 4pm on that Sunday, we held a community and church
members meeting inside the church, and it was decided that we all should
immediately evacuate both the church and the parsonage for the safety of people
who had been staying and meeting inside the church for the past seven days.
We organized a six-car and small passenger van caravan
loaded with eight persons per vehicle. I drove my car as the lead
car. Rev. Templeton and Donna, along with several of the young student
leaders were also inside my car to Raleigh.
We all drove safely to Raleigh, NC to the office
of the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, located on
Fayetteville Street three blocks from the State Capitol Building. We met there
that night with Rev. Leon White and others from the United Church of Christ to
plan a press conference for Monday morning.
-30-
EXCLUSIVE
THE WITNESS WHO NEVER
TESTIFIED FOR THE WILMINGTON
TEN
by Cash Michaels
editor
When
young Rev. Eugene Templeton came to predominately black Gregory Congregational
Church in Wilmington in 1969 – the year after civil rights leader Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated – he knew that being its white
pastor, the second in its history, would be challenging, especially with the
dramatic changes in civil rights that were taking place.
The
year before , a federal court had ruled in favor of the NAACP that New Hanover
County Public Schools must desegregate, and ordered the racially stratified
system to do so.
But
white leaders in the city and county, not pleased with a federal court mandate
that, in their minds, essentially took changed their public school system from
what they’ve always cherished, decided to retaliate by immediately, and without
any warning, close all–black Williston High School, one of the most popular and
achievement-driven schools in all of North Carolina.
The
black community was still in shock when Rev. Templeton, then in his early
twenties, arrived to lead Gregory. As the United Church of Christ minister
worked to earn his place in the community, based on his previous work with
black communities in Georgia, black students were experiencing racist treatment
in the previously all-white schools they were bussed to.
There
were daily fights. Blacks were poorly treated in the classrooms. They weren’t
allowed to carry on traditions they had proudly adopted while attending
Williston.
And
in 1971, the last straw was the New Hanover Board of Education ruled they
weren’t allowed to commemorate the birthday of Dr. King.
The
students had had enough, and decided to organize to confront what they felt was
a school system that was racially discriminatory.
They
boycotted classes, knowing that that would cost the school system state money
daily, and sought out a place where they not only could strategize and hold
rallies, but also have classes to keep up with their studies.
Of
all of the black churches they approached to seek permission to headquarter at,
only Gregory, with its young 24-year-old white pastor, said yes.
“These
were not wild kids,” Rev. Templeton, 69, who interviewed exclusively with The
Wilmington Journal in November during a rare trip back to North Carolina,
recalls. “These were kids, joined together, in some sense of community, against
what they perceived to be a very powerful institution in the school board that
had taken their school away, and had given them a very poor substitute.”
Templeton
gave his blessing, and got Gregory’s governing deacon board to sign off on
giving the students sanctuary.
He
knew he needed assistance in guiding them, so pastor Templeton called his
superiors in the United Church of Christ (UCC), and they soon sent veteran
civil rights activist Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. to provide leadership.
Having
once worked under Dr. King, Chavis was known as a strong proponent of
nonviolent action. It was something the UCC deeply believed in, and Chavis’
mission was to show the black students how to achieve their goals and voice
their grievances in a powerful, yet peaceful manner.
From
the very beginning, when Rev. Chavis arrived that first week in February, 1971,
that meant there was a special discipline enforced, and no student violated it.
“There was respect for the church,”
Templeton says regarding one of the reasons why none of the black students
following Rev. Chavis at Gregory ever brought a weapon there. Indeed, Templeton
says the church was “off-limits for most things, except for the meetings. We
needed the church because it provided the meeting space.”
Having
weapons at the church, or indeed, fighting back against the gun attacks from
the white supremacists riding on pickup trucks through the streets, would have
given the authorities all of the justification they would need to storm the
church at anytime that week, and undermine the nonviolent principles Chavis and
the students were firmly standing on.
Templeton says, “There was no sense
of responsibility anywhere” by the white power structure in Wilmington about
the racist conditions black students had to endure in New Hanover County Public
Schools.
Their
only concern, Rev. Templeton confirms, was that that “black radical outsider,”
Ben Chavis, had come to town to stirrup trouble. The media was making sure that
Rev. Chavis was held responsible for every arson, every disturbance, every
bullet fired and every person hurt or killed during a tumultuous week that saw
the port city set ablaze.
“The
public message was, “We’re just good people trying to get along in a difficult
situation, and this outsider has come in, and unwittingly duped this pastor to
go along with him…and [Chavis] has totally ravaged our community,” Templeton
recalls. “I know that a lot of white people in town believed that entirely to
this day.”
Leaders in Wilmington’s black
community cried out to the mayor and police chief to do something to stop the
white marauders attacking the church, which was well behind police barricades that
the attackers violated regularly. Chavis says he even pleaded for a curfew to
be imposed to keep attackers off the street, but the pleas fell on deaf ears
with city officials.
Then
it happened.
Saturday, Feb. 6th, 1971
– the infamous day in the case of the Wilmington Ten – Rev. Templeton recalls
it beginning with more pickup trucks, with armed members of the Rights of White People, riding
through the streets of black Wilmington.
At
noon, the Gregory governing board of Deacons met, and decided that enough was
enough. They voted to have all of the black students to leave the church.
Templeton
says both he and Rev. Chavis felt “very defeated.” The people who had supported
them initially were saying, “Stop, your cause is over. You cannot succeed.”
Templeton
recalls feeling a “huge sense of betrayal” after all that they had been
through.
Most
of the students left Gregory as ordered, and went back to their homes and
families to be safe. About six of the older students insisted on staying with
Rev. Templeton, his wife, and Rev. Chavis in the parsonage, in order to protect
them from harm, and provide security during the church service the following
morning.
That
left the church locked and empty, Templeton says.
Later
that fateful Saturday afternoon, a young black teen from the neighborhood named
Steve Mitchell was killed across from Gregory. The death greatly added to the
deep depression and sense of failure Rev. Templeton, Ben and those with them
were feeling.
When
a white man is also killed nearby, Templeton and Chavis knew they had to go.
As
the night went on, Templeton says they heard sirens from the direction of
Mike’s Grocery, the white mom-and-pop neighborhood store that black residents
cherished because the Greek owner would always give credit to those in need.
Someone
had firebombed Mike’s, and the sirens were coming from fire trucks answering
the call. It wouldn’t be long after public safety personnel were on the scene
that someone began firing bullets in their direction.
Prosecutors
say the shots came from the steeple of Gregory Church, not far away.
Templeton
says that’s impossible because there were no weapons in the church, and no one
with a weapon at the church for that day, or that week.
“We
were scared of getting killed. We weren’t thinking about shooting firemen and
policemen,” the former pastor recalls. [We] had enough going on just to protect
[ourselves].”
Templeton
is clear that of the people that were with him in the parsonage that evening,
with the exception of Ben Chavis, none of the others who would be eventually
arrested and charged with conspiracy in connection with the firebombing of
Mike’s, or the alleged sniper assault on firefighters and police officers
dealing with the blaze, were there.
Willie
Earl Vereen and James “Bun” McKoy were musicians, and were playing a gig out of
town, they told The Wilmington Journal.
Connie
Tindall, before he died last August, told The Journal that Feb. 6th
was his birthday, and he was with friends celebrating it at a club nowhere near
Gregory church or Mike’s Grocery.
Judy
Mack, a daughter of Anne Shepard – the white female member of the Wilmington
Ten – recently told reporters that her mother was a “white woman of size,” and
it would have been impossible for anyone to have not seen her in the area if
she were preparing to set fire to Mike’s Grocery, or were brandishing a
firearm.
“She’s
not somebody you would have missed,” Templeton recalls, noting that he doesn’t
remember seeing her that prior week at all.
The
five other student Wilmington Ten members maintained that they were innocent of
any charges in connection with the white-owned grocery store.
“[For
prosecutors to target] that whole group doesn’t make sense to me,” the former
pastor says.
And
Rev. Templeton insists that Rev. Ben Chavis was with he and his wife for the
entire day. In fact, at the time of the firebombing of Mike’s, Templeton says
Chavis was with him, preparing in the event that the National Guard stormed the
church with teargas during Sunday morning’s church service and Sunday school.
“[Ben]
is with us,” Templeton says. We were getting all of the washcloths we could son
that we could moisten them, so we could, if the [church] got teargassed, we
could protect the people there.”
“And that’s what we were actually
planning. That was the ‘conspiracy’ we were about,” Templeton says.
Early Sunday morning, Feb. 7th,
about five people, including a mother with her two children, attending services
at Gregory Church. One of the deacons who demanded that the black students
leave came to conduct the Sunday school.”
“We give them the washcloths to
protect them,” Rev. Templeton recalls. “We tell them what’s going on. We say
that in this craziness, we need to have a prayer, and then everybody needs to
go home.”
As far as Templeton knows, he says,
everybody left.
The pastor gets down on the floor
in the rear of a vehicle, with three men sitting above him on the seat, their
feet proving cover. With his wife sitting in the front, the car drives out of
Wilmington, arriving in Raleigh later that day.
Templeton vaguely remembers Ben
Chavis leaving in a separate car.
The National Guard subsequently storms the church later that day, but it is empty.
It is a year later before anyone is arrested, and put on trial, in connection with the events of Feb. 6th, 1971.
The National Guard subsequently storms the church later that day, but it is empty.
It is a year later before anyone is arrested, and put on trial, in connection with the events of Feb. 6th, 1971.
The next time Rev. Templeton
returns to Gregory is the following weekend for the funeral of Steve Mitchell,
the black teen who had been gunned down near the church.
Before the funeral, Wilmington
Mayor Luther Cromartie telephoned Pastor Templeton, a call he’ll never forget.
“Look boy,” Templeton remembers the
mayor telling him, “I don’t want this funeral to be turned into a circus.”
“And he was so clear that he
thought we were planning the funeral as another jumping off point for another
…provocation to the town. That got me.”
Templeton performed the service,
then left Wilmington for Hickory, NC, because people said it wasn’t safe for
him to stay.
It wasn’t long before Rev.
Templeton resigned as pastor of Gregory Congregational Church. For years after,
he and his wife lived in fear.
That became particularly true a
year later when, in 1972, after he was asked to come back to Wilmington to
testify for the defense of the Wilmington Ten, Templeton and his wife flew into
Fayetteville from New Jersey to catch the connecting flight to Wilmington.
But friends from Wilmington leave
an urgent message at the Fayetteville airport for him to call. When he does,
Templeton is told that if he and Donna step off the plane to go to Wilmington,
word is the Klan will assassinate him.
Donna was pregnant. Templeton
decides he can’t take that chance. The couple turns around, and head back to
New Jersey, leaving the Wilmington Ten defense team to drastically change their
strategy as a result.
In Oct. 1972, a jury of ten whites
and two blacks convict the Wilmington Ten, none of whom take the stand in their
own defense because, in the opinion of defense attorneys, the state put forth
no credible evidence.
Attorney Irving Joyner, who worked
with the defense, said their hope was that given the racially charged climate,
and the fact that ten Pender County whites dominated the jury, that having the
white pastor testify to what he knew might buy them a chance to effectively
counter the state’s fabrications.
Without Templeton, however, it made
no sense putting any of the Ten on the stand. So the best the defense could do
was to show that the state’s witnesses were lying.
But that didn’t matter to the “KKK
and Uncle Tom-type” jury, or presiding Judge Robert Martin, who made clear
early on that he was pro-prosecution.
The Wilmington Ten were convicted,
and sentenced to 282 years in prison, some of which they served before Gov.
James B. Hunt - under great worldwide pressure after Amnesty International
issued its report, and CBS’s “60 Minutes” uncovered that the state’s witnesses
lied and evidence was fabricated – commuted their sentences.
In Dec. 1980, the US Fourth Circuit
Court of Appeals overturned all of the Wilmington Ten convictions, and directed
North Carolina either to retry them, or dismiss all charges.
The state has done neither, leading
up to now, when Gov. Beverly Perdue is being petitioned to grant pardons of
innocence to the Wilmington Ten.
In the intervening years, Rev.
Templeton has worked hard to rebuild his life, deeply haunted by the singular
event that has changed his life, and made him live in fear for a good portion
of it.
On February 3rd, 2011, after
Mayor Bill Saffo apologized to the Wilmington Ten during the UNC-Wilmington
commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the 1971 incident, Rev.
Templeton, having returned to Wilmington for the first time in years, was
greeted as a hero by African-American community for supporting the black
students when no other pastor would.
Until that night, Rev. Templeton
says he carried the guilt of thinking that he hadn’t done enough forty years
ago to help Ben Chavis and the others.
Today, as forty years ago,
Templeton insists that all of the Ten are innocent
He says that Ben Chavis is “a man
of GOD” who abhors violence, and always has.
Rev. Templeton says if he were to
speak to Gov. Perdue personally, he would tell her about the struggle he and
Ben went through that fateful evening of Feb. 6, 1971.
“We had been beaten by the church,
by the government, and all we had going for us was the rightness of the cause.
I will never believe that that makes people guilty of anything,” Rev. Templeton
says.
“I ask you to give [The Wilmington
Ten] their pardons, so that they can move on with their lives, with as little
baggage, from what this horrible sequence has done to them, as possible.”
-30-
STATE NEWS BRIEFS
“HOT SAUCE” PRISON
SUPT. RESIGNS AMID SCANDAL
[CLINTON]
The prison superintendant who allegedly allowed his inmates to have hot sauce
rubbed on their genitals for the sexual entertainment of his prison guards, has
now retired. Sampson Correctional Institution Supt. Lafayette Hall had been
suspended without pay for the incident while under investigation. One of Hall’s
correction officers, Anthony Jackson, has resigned, and another David Jones,
remains under investigation. Supt. Hall had been at the prison since 2000. The
SBI is continuing its probe.
FEDERAL APPELLATE
COURT TOSSES MOST OF DUKE LACROSSE LAWSUIT
[DURHAM]
The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has tossed most of the claims in a
federal lawsuit by the several Duke lacrosse players involved in the 2006
alleged rape of a black dancer. The court disallowed all federal claims for
damaged made against the city of Durham, but left standing claims under North
Carolina law that Durham police violated the players constitutional rights. The
dancer, Crystal Mangum, claimed that she was raped by three members of the Duke
lacrosse team. State Attorney General Roy Cooper later threw the rape charges
out, claiming lack of evidence, and malfeasance by the Durham district
attorney.
GOV. PERDUE WANTS
EUGENICS COMPENSATION AFTER SHE LEAVES OFFICE
[RALEIGH] As mandated by state law, outgoing Gov.
Beverly Perdue has submitted a proposed budget to Gov.-elect Pat McCrory, and
among her suggested items – compensation for the victims of the state’s forced
sterilization program. The governor has been an advocate for the eugenics
victims since she took office in 2009. Perdue established a committee to
determine compensation, and then gave a recommendation to the Republican-led
General Assembly. The state House passed a compensation bill, but the
Republicans in the Senate refused to take up the measure. House Speaker Tillis
has said that he’ll push for compensation again when the Legislature
reconvenes. No word on whether Gov.-elect McCrory will endorse Perdue’s
proposal.
-30-
TRIANGLE NEWS BRIEFS
WOMAN ARRESTED AT
DURHAM COURTHOUSE WITH DRUGS, WEAPONS
Durham
Sheriff’s deputies stopped a woman entering the Durham County Courthouse Monday
who was allegedly carrying several bags of heroin, a razor blade and a
screwdriver in her purse. The woman, Kelly Hawkins, 32 of Durham, was arrested
and charged with felony possession of heroin, and misdemeanor of drug
paraphernalia. Hawkins was released from jail on $4,500 bond.
WAKE SCHOOL BOARD
DENIES ACCREDITATION AGENCY COMPLAINT
Calling
allegations that it is propagating “a climate of fear and intimidation,” the
Wake County Public School System denied a complaint filed with the AdvancED
school accreditation agency from the conservative group, Wake County Taxpayers
Association. WCTA has been critical of the Democrats on the board ever since
they took over the majority a year ago, and was especially critical after Supt.
Tony Tata was fired several months ago. WCPSS says the Democratic majority “has
operated openly and transparently.” The system also told AdvancED that it
scrapped the GOP’s choice plan because it was causing problems with student
assignment.
FORMER WAKE DISTRICT
COURT JUDGE GETS REPRIMAND
Kristin
Ruth, the former Wake District Court judge forced to resign after she was tricked
into altering other judges’ DWI sentencing orders, was given a reprimand after
she pled guilty to failing to discharge the duties of her office. She was
ordered to never seek a judicial office again. Ruth was praised for immediately
coming forward once she realized that attorney James Crouch had used her to un
knowingly backdate many of his DWI cases. Crouch is now serving time in prison
for his scheme.
-30-
CASH IN THE APPLE
By Cash Michaels
MERRY CHRISTMAS – With so, so much going on in the
world, the Christmas holiday season couldn’t have come at a better time.
Is it me, or does it seem to you too like folks are
more anxious for Christmas to come
than ever before? The joy of the season, the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and, of
course, the exchange of gifts and presents, is what makes this time of year so precious
in all of our memories, and hearts.
So I hope and pray that you and your family have the
most blessed time this Christmas season.
Merry Christmas!
Lord knows we deserve it!
HAPPY KWANZAA – As always, Dec. 26th to
January 1st are the seven days of Kwanzaa, a holiday period that is unique to the African-American community,
which celebrates the seven African-based principles of hard work and
fruitfulness.
Those principles are:
Umoja (Unity)
Kujichagulia (Self-determination)
Ujima (Collective work and
responsibility)
Ujamaa (Cooperative economics)
Nia (Purpose)
Kuumba (Creativity)
Imani (Faith)
Since it was founded in 1966 by Prof. Ron Karenga, Kwanzaa has exploded worldwide, reminding those
of us of African heritage that, with the exception of GOD, our families and
communities come first.
At least that’s the way we look at it at our house.
No matter, Happy Kwanza!
DISGRACE IN NEWTOWN – Almost a week since the
unthinkable carnage at the elementary school in Newtown, Conn., and it is still
hard to believe that this nation could not protect its children against the
evil assault that claimed the lives of 28, 20 of whom were first-graders ages 6
and 7.
The president has been eloquent, if not poignant, in
expressing the sorrow of our nation. He vowed that we could no longer tolerate
the wanton bloodshed of gun violence in our nation.
We here in the African-American community know far
too well the horror of having young, productive and promising lives snuffed out
by stray bullets, all because some gangbanger wants to take out some idiot who
stepped on his foot, or winked at his woman.
Let’s be honest with ourselves, we cry for these
precious babies who are victims of some of the most ignorant, yet vicious acts
of violence known to man. But yet, we tolerate it because we firmly believe in
our “constitutional right” to blow one another away for something as minimal as
a verbal slight.
A member of my family has to be in mortal danger
before I’d even consider taking another person’s life, but that isn’t the
standard today. The power of life and death that a gun – ANY gun – gives certain
people is so intoxicating, it has reached pandemic proportions in our nation.
So let’s be real, we will never be able to control
the flow and use of semi-automatic weapons in our society until we get a grip
on the insane hunger we, as a nation, have for real blood.
We need to get back valuing life again, if for no one
else, our children.
You see what we’ve done…indeed what we’ve been doing
to our babies.
What will it take next to get all of us to commit to
a real culture change?
I shudder to think what the answer to that question
could be?
WILMINGTON TEN UPDATE – In just days, if it hasn’t
happened by the time you read this, we are expecting Gov. Beverly Perdue to decide whether to grant pardon of innocence
to the Wilmington Ten.
The most likely scenario is Gov. Perdue will wait
until she is about to leave office before having her office make the
announcement. That is not expected to happen until between Dec. 31st
and Jan. 4th
Earlier this week, The News and Observer of Raleigh came out with a powerful editorial
endorsing pardons of innocence for the Wilmington Ten. We certainly thank them
for that, and hope tat other mainstream newspapers throughout the state, join
in the chorus for Gov. Perdue to do justice in this regard.
Next week on Dec. 27th, we will be loading
up the bus in Wilmington to bring surviving members of the Wilmington Ten and
their supporters back to the State Capital in Raleigh to make our closing statement to Gov. Perdue.
It will be both dramatic, and historic. But it’s all
to make the point that, after forty long years, justice must be done in the
case of the Wilmington Ten.
We thank you for your support thus
far. The work is not over, however. As long as there is still time for Gov.
Perdue to make a decision, the Pardon Project and our supporters will continue
to build support.
We are also asking, for those individuals, churches or institutions
who wish to beyond just signing the petition, to send letters to Gov. Perdue
asking her to grant pardons of innocence to the Wilmington Ten ASAP.
Here is that address:
Hon.
Beverly Eaves Perdue
Governor of North Carolina
20301
Mail Service Center
Raleigh,
NC 27699-0301
If
you want more information about the Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence
Project, you can go to www.wilmingtonjournal.com or on Facebook
at https://www.facebook.com/TheWilmingtonTenPardonOfInnocenceProject.
Please, as we enter this holy season of Christmas, let us deliver
peace and justice to those who have been forty years denied.
Thank you.
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 new 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.
Until next week, keep a smile on your face, GOD in your
heart, and The Carolinian in your life. Bye, bye.
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