http://nnpa.org/minimum-wage-jump-good-for-low-income-blacks-by-freddie-allen/
http://nnpa.org/civil-rights-leaders-submit-agenda-to-president-by-freddie-allen/
EXCLUSIVE
DIVIDED PARTY LOSES, SAYS
BLACK DEMOCRAT LEADER
By Cash Michaels
Editor
The
president of the state African-American Caucus of the NC Democratic Party says
if all factions of the state party can’t find a way to even temporarily bury
their deep differences, and unite to win this fall’s crucial 2014 midterm
elections, not only will the party lose this year, but possibly cripple any
thought of winning back the state Legislature during the presidential elections
in 2016.
In an
exclusive interview, Willie Fleming, president of the African-American Caucus
of the NC Democratic Party, said he is supportive of NCDP Chairman Randy
Voller, and was outraged by the way the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr. was
treated when Voller nominated him to become interim executive director.
The views
of Fleming, who lives in Charlotte, are important because with
African-Americans comprising a solid, loyal base at least 24 percent of the
state Democratic Party, it’s clear that the party get far without successfully
turning out that vote.
“We are the
most loyal voters in the Democratic Party,” Fleming says. “We turn out 93-94
percent of our vote.”
However,
with no plan of voter registration, education or mobilization on the table; and
nothing to excite the base of the party to even show up at the polls in the
fall, Fleming, among others, is concerned that with progressive and
moderate-to-conservative factions of the party currently at odds with each
other (in addition to some traditional donors cutting off their contributions
because of the schism), the party will go limping into the fall in a losing
effort.
A losing effort
that could cost incumbent US Sen. Kay Hagan, who filed for re-election this
week, her seat.
The
African-American Caucus (ACC) is a chartered auxiliary of the NC Democratic
Party, authorized by the party’s State Executive Council. It has approximately
30 county chapters across the state. It’s purpose is to promote political
education and participation in the black community on behalf of the state
Democratic Party and its candidates, and also representing the concerns and
issues of the black community back to the party.
“African-Americans
have the highest unemployment, the lowest net worth, highest incarceration,
highest foreclosure rate, and we vote candidates into office to make sure that
they focus those concerns,” Fleming says, making clear the AAC holds Democratic
candidates accountable.
“It’s like
supply-and-demand. [Black Democrats] supply the vote, but we do have some demands
we want you to address,” Fleming says.
In the
western counties of the state where the black population is comparatively
sparse to the east, the black vote is not a factor, Fleming notes. But overall,
there’s little question that without the party’s most loyal base, the Democrats
have a difficult time winning.
Regarding
the current leadership of the NC Democratic Party, Fleming says he’s supportive
of its controversial Chairman Randy Voller, though he admits that “Randy has
made some mistakes.”
“Randy’s
intention is to move [the NC Democratic Party] forward, so I support Randy. All
in all, when you vote somebody into office, you support that person, and work
out the things that are wrong, not sit there and dwell on them,” said Fleming,
adding that sometimes the Democratic Party spends more time “focusing on the
problem than the solution.”
Elected a
year ago, Voller, a progressive, has run smack into a buzzsaw of political
opposition from what is known as the “Hunt faction” of the NC Democratic Party,
the moderate-to-conservative veteran Democrats who are most associated with
former Gov. Jim Hunt. Because North Carolina has always been moderate state
politically when Democrats were in charge, that faction feels it should be in
power now, even though many of the party’s most recent scandals involving
campaign finance corruption and sexual harassment happened on their watch.
That
faction was also in power in 2010 when Democrats virtually gave the Republicans
lasting control of the state General Assembly and redistricting, and again in
2012 when the GOP gained a complete lock on state government by winning the
Governor’s Mansion and strengthening their hold on Congressional seats.
The only
significant pushback against the resulting policies of voter restrictions,
Medicaid and unemployment benefit cuts, has come from the nonpartisan NCNAACP
and its powerful “Moral Monday” movement.
Without
that movement, which has no connection to the NC Democratic Party at all, state
Democrats wouldn’t even have a pulse, which means the party has to devise its
own means and strategies to excite its base, and harness the energy generated
from the NCNAACP movement.
“The old
South, sometimes the old party... be it Hunt or whomever, has to realize that
there is a change from the way you did things ten years ago. As the political
climate changes, you have to adapt to that change,” Fleming notes.
But unity
between the factions must happen first in order to effectively map a way
forward, Fleming maintains.
“There are
almost a million more Democrats in North Carolina than there are Republicans?
How do we lose races? Even with redrawing the districts,” Fleming asks,
suggesting that NC Democrats need strategies to not only deliver the lion share
of their rank-and-file voters, but also cultivate new voters among blacks,
Latinos and young people similar to the strategies employed by the Obama
campaign in 2008.
“They
energized people,” Fleming recalls. Six years ago, based on the excitement of
possibly elected the first African-American president in history, the party and
the Obama campaign built momentum leading up to election day that resulting in
banking enough votes for the president, Gov. Beverly Perdue and Sen. Kay Hagen,
to eek out slim victories over their opponents (Hagan actually attracted more
total votes than Obama in North Carolina).
State
Democrats need that kind of operation again. But with moderate donors
withholding contributions, and obstructing Chairman Voller at almost every
turn, Fleming says North Carolina Democrats will have to decide – do they want
to win or not?
“Let’s put
the Democratic Party ahead of our own personal issues,” Fleming says. “That’s
the only way we can win.”
Problem –
thus far, no one has been identified as being agreeable to all as to having the
skillset, experience and capabilities to lead the charge towards getting
Democrats back in the winner’s circle.
Fleming
says absent that, coalitions within the party among Democrats of color like
Latinos and Asian-Americans must be established to work together to cultivate
their respective communities to register to vote, and then vote.
Per the
recent failed nomination of Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr. to become executive
director (ED) of the NCDP, Fleming says Chavis was “very much qualified,” and the
AAC supported that goal, as it does support the ascension of all
African-Americans to important posts within the party. Indeed, that was
allegedly the problem with Robert Dempsey, the previous ED whom Chairman Voller
abruptly fired on Feb. 9th.
Fleming
confirms reports that Dempsey, who only had been with the NCDP since last
spring, allegedly had a deaf ear to the concerns of Democrats of color, and
that was also reflected in his hiring. Moderate and conservative Democrats were
apparently pleased with Dempsey, but black Democrats, in particular, found him
difficult to deal with.
Chavis’
name was withdraw from consideration after a firestorm of media controversy
about his past poisoned the opinions of Democrats statewide, even though he was
never given a platform within the party to answer his critics, and correct some
of the false allegations made about him. Fleming said the way Dr. Chavis was
treated angered him.
As to
whether or not Chavis could still be chosen as ED, Fleming says that up to the
chairman and the State Executive Council to decide. He has little doubt that if
given the job, Dr. Chavis could handle it.
In the end
for Willie Fleming and the black Democrats he leads, the solution is elementary
– if the party wants to win, its membership has to stop fighting each other
harder than it fights the Republicans.
“It’s going
to take us uniting to fight the GOP. We have to understand that we have to
stand up for each other, and I think the Democratic has to understand the
situation if we don’t make that happen,” Fleming said.
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STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 2-26-14
STUDY CONFIRMS BLACK
VOTERS IMPACTED BY STATE VOTER RESTRICTIONS
[RALEIGH]
Black voters will be negatively and disproportionately affected when North
Carolina’s voter ID and other voter restriction laws go into effect, finds a
new study by researchers at Dartmouth and the University of Florida. The new
law shortens the early voting period to seven days, eliminates straight ticket
voting and same-day voter registration, and does away with 16 and 17-year-old
pre-registration – all popular election features that African-Americans
participated in prior to the new Republican restrictions. The study also found
that blacks were less likely to have one of two forms of common photo
identification.
WHITE SUPREMACIST
SUSPECT HID COMPUTER IN RALEIGH MAYOR THREAT CASE
[RALEIGH] A
suspect with alleged white supremacist ties, who police say threatened the life
of Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane, reportedly hid a laptop computer that he
asked his mother by letter to find and destroy. Jailers at the Wake County
Detention Center intercepted the letter and informed Raleigh Police, who then
executed a search warrant at the home of suspect Alec Dane Redner’s mother, and
found the computer in a crawl space under the house. Redner, 27, had worked out
a code with his mother to confirm when the device was destroyed. Redner is
charged with threatening Mayor McFarlane via her website in January’s life. The
suspect “had a documented association with white supremacist ideologies, “
according to one of Redner’s police warrants.
AT 74 DIE OF FLU IN
THE STATE SINCE NOVEMBER, SAY STATE OFFICIALS
[GREENSBORO]
The H1N1 flu virus has killed as many as 74 people across the state since
November, officials with the state Dept. of Heath and Human Services say, with
eight alone in the past month. Fifty-four of the victims were between the ages
of 24 and 65. Young people are
vulnerable during this flu season because fewer of them are being vaccinated compared
to older citizens, state officials say.
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TRIANGLE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 2-26-14
DURHAM POLICE DENY
RACIAL PROFILING CHARGES
In a
45-page report, the Durham Police Dept. this week refuted charges by citizens
and even the local NAACP that officers engage in racial bias during traffic
stops. In that report, Durham PD says looking over several years, on a tiny
fraction of traffic stops show perhaps a disproportionate number of blacks,
compared to whites, being stopped by officers, and even then, the department
says its not because of any racial bias. Many citizens weren’t buying it,
though. "When we look at the raw
numbers, we see hundreds and hundreds - in some years, over a thousand -
innocent black motorists subjected to this practice and we don't see anything
like that compared to white motorists," says Ian Mance of the Southern
Coalition for Social Justice.
ST. AUG WILL FURLOUGH WORKERS TO DEAL WITH
BUDGET CRISIS
In the face of a $3 million deficit
and a pending lawsuit, St. Augustine’s University has announced that it will
furlough its employees without pay during spring break from March 9th
– 15th, with workers returning on March 17th. The
school’s board of trustees is facing. Enrollment has dropped drastically since
2012, forcing the layoff of 15 employees. An audit revealed poor accounting
practices, and the contractor for the football stadium is suing the school for
over $600,000 he says the school owes him. “It has
been a very tough time for our university family as we work very hard to meet
the needs of our students while maintaining the academic qualities that we have
come to know and appreciate,” Dr. Suber, who is at the CIAA Tournament in
Charlotte this week, told employees in a memo. “We have engaged many of you in
meetings over the last few months as we try to make the best decisions and review
the financial matters affecting the University. We have shared with the Board
where we are and our plan for recovery.”
WAKE GRAND JURY INDICTS FOUR
IN BAIL BONDSMEN SCANDAL
Two bail bondsmen and two former
county clerks were indicted this week by a Wake County grand jury in an alleged
scheme that allowed the bondsmen to not pay forfeiture for suspects who didn’t
appear for their court dates. Because, by law, Wake County Public School System
is supposed to get the forfeited money, an estimated $1 million never got to
school system coiffeurs. The indictments are a result of an SBI probe since
last August into allegations that workers in the Clerk of Courts office were
not registering forfeited bonds into the computer system for certain bondsmen
who allegedly bribed them. The school system is working to recover the money,
plus interest and penalties.
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VOUCHER PROGRAMS “EXTREMISTS”
Special to The
Carolinian
The NC
NAACP, its legal team and litigation partners on Tuesday challenged two of what
they call, “the extremist initiatives pushed by Gov. Pat McCrory, Speaker Thom
Tillis, Senate Leader Phil Berger, Budget Director Art Pope and other Tea Party
legislators who claim their proposals are not targeting racial minorities and
the poor.”
"These
two issues are connected," said Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, president
of the NC NAACP. "The people that are trying to keep minorities and the
poor from voting are the same people that want to prevent our children from
receiving a quality public education and the economic opportunities that such
an education makes possible. We must be conscious of the racialized legacy of
voter suppression and vouchers in North Carolina."
Rev.
Barber, the NC NAACP legal team and its litigation allies said the voucher
program, on its surface, purports to help minority and low-income children. But
it has a racialized past just as ugly as the more widely-publicized attacks on
voting rights, they alleged.
"When
you look at the voucher program that was stopped by a temporary injunction last
week, you have to recognize there is a history here," Rev. Barber said.
"That's why the NC NAACP filed a friend of the court brief in this case.
We want to reveal the racialized history of school vouchers in North Carolina.
After the NAACP's great victory in the 1954 Brown case, extremists in
the state legislature used vouchers to fund white families setting up all-white
academies with taxpayer money. They too used the rhetoric of school choice.
This is old wine wrapped in a new wineskin."
So too
is the “extremists' voter suppression law,” Rev. Barber added. The disparate
impact that these voting provisions have on people of color, low-income North Carolinians
and other marginalized groups hearkens back to Jim Crow when “extremists”
attempted to keep African Americans from the ballot box, he said.
"The
extremists passed the strictest voter ID and worst suppression law we have seen
since Jim Crow," Rev Barber said. "They did it directly after the Shelby
decision when the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. That was not
a coincidence."
"Extremists
in the General Assembly in 2013 pushed through discriminatory, unjust laws like
school vouchers and voter suppression over the strong protests of tens of
thousands of North Carolinians," he continued. "Now these ideological
laws must face the strict scrutiny of the courts."
Members
of the legal team then spoke about the recent updates in the NC NAACP's
litigation efforts to hold our lawmakers accountable.
Attorneys
Elizabeth Haddix, who is representing the NC NAACP with the UNC Center of Civil
Rights, and Jessica Holmes from the North Carolina Association of Educators, a
co-plaintiff in the suit, spoke about the temporary injunction issued on Feb.
21 to halt any further implementation of the voucher program.
Also
on Feb. 21, a federal magistrate judge held a hearing on the state legislators'
attempts to claim immunity for themselves and any documents they created around
the voter suppression bill. Adam Stein, a long-term civil rights attorney and a
member of the Advancement Project-led legal team in the voter ID challenge,
explained the importance of these emails, documents and other communications
relating to how much the legislators knew about the harmful impact this bill
would have on African Americans, the poor and women.
"The
extremists in the General Assembly made the rounds of all the TV shows last
summer to talk about how the voter suppression law was designed to fight
fraud-even though there is no evidence of voter fraud," Rev. Barber said.
"Yet now that we are challenging them with this lawsuit, these same
lawmakers are attempting to claim immunity and to hide their documents from the
careful and microscopic scrutiny of the courts."
According
to Stein, Magistrate Joi Peake assured the NC NAACP and its legal team that she
would oversee the discovery process to make sure the state government turned
over documents before this summer's hearing on our motion to block the law from
going into effect for the 2014 elections.
"These
judges are bound to uphold the 1868 North Carolina constitution, and these
challenges to the vouchers and to the voter suppression law are already
beginning to prove that the constitution is on our side," Rev. Barber
said. "We refuse to let Tea Party legislators claim they act out of a deep
concern for the poor and for minorities when they in fact are passing laws that
will only serve to rob low-income and minority North Carolinians of their
constitutional rights to vote and to receive a sound, basic public
education."
In explaining the historical context for the voucher
and the voter suppression litigation efforts, Rev. Barber highlighted the
following points:
• In 1956, North Carolinians
opposed to desegregation created the
Pearsall Plan to provide vouchers to white students in schools that were
attempting to integrate-thereby keeping the state's schools largely
segregated for another 20 years. As our amicus brief notes, "this is the direct and notorious ancestry of
school vouchers in North Carolina, and the corrupt foundation upon which
the current voucher legislation is built."
• Today, the pro-voucher forces are
hiding behind their school-choice rhetoric and their alleged concern for the
poor and for minorities. But the intellectual architects of their movement have
written candidly about the need to recruit minority spokespeople to legitimize
themselves.
• "The leadership must visibly include racial minorities of both sexes and
prominent Democrats," John Coons and Stephan Sugarman wrote in
their 1999 article. "The
conservative commitment to the project is necessary, but should remain mute
until the coalition has secured leadership whose party affiliation, social
class or race--preferably all three--displays what the media will interpret as
concern for the disadvantaged." See our amicus brief for the full
excerpt.
• Many poor children will not be
able to take advantage of these vouchers because the average tuition for a NC private school is $2,000 more than the voucher
stipend. But even if children of color could take advantage of the
stipend, empirical evidence shows low-income
and minority children perform better in public schools than in voucher
programs.
• According to a new study from the
Children's Law Clinic at Duke Law, only
30 percent of NC private schools are accredited by an independent agency.
Among those schools with tuition rates fully covered by the voucher stipend,
that percentage drops to less than five
percent.
• Dick Komer, who travelled to
North Carolina to help the state's attorneys fight our voucher challenge, is an
attorney with the libertarian law firm,
Institute for Justice, which got its seed money from the Koch brothers and
still operates with support from ultra-conservative donors like Art Pope and
the Walton family.
• If lawmakers want to truly help
poor children succeed, they would fully
fund our public schools as the state constitution requires rather than
give taxpayer money to send a handful of children to unaccredited private
schools.
• A study from Democracy NC
demonstrates that the new provisions included in the voter suppression bill
will have a disproportionate impact on African Americans. For instance, more than 70 percent of African Americans used
early voting in 2012 to cast their ballots, yet the extremists cut a week of
early voting, including the popular Sunday voting before election day.
• A court cannot fully restore the
right to vote after it has been stripped from you. You may get the chance to
vote again, but the people who were
elected under unjust voting laws are still in office legislating policy.
• Gov.
Pat McCrory only turned over three documents to our legal team since we filed
the lawsuit against the voter suppression law back in August. They are trying to ensure that
we won't have the documents we need to prove our case in court and to win a
temporary injunction to block these voter suppression tactics from going into
effect during the 2014 elections.
"These
laws are an affront to who we are as North Carolinians," Rev. Barber said.
"We will fight the attacks on voting rights and on public education. We
say, let the people vote and let the children enjoy their constitutional right
to a sound, basic, public education."
-30-
By Cash Michaels
APRIL 5TH
– Now that the rough weather is presumably gone (TRANSLATION – no more big snow
storms HOPEFULLY), it can now be announced that the World Premiere of the NNPA
– CashWorks HD Productions documentary “Pardons of Innocence: The Wilmington
Ten,” originally scheduled for Feb. 15th, has now been moved to the
morning of Saturday, April 5th, at UNC – Wilmington, 9:30 a.m..
It will be
free and open to the public, but seating will be limited.
Following
the film, there will be a panel discussion on the current state of civil
rights, and the continuing need for the Black Press.
Later that
evening, there will be a gala banquet the Hilton Riverside. Tickets and tables
are available.
For more
information about tickets, call Shawn Thatch at the Wilmington Journal at
910-762-5502.
GOD willing
and the creek don’t rise, you’ll finally get a chance to see what I believe
will be an important historical film. More details to come.
ROBIN AND
PAULA – Well, well, well…looks like the eight-year marriage of “singer” (if that’s what you want to call
him) Robin “Blurred Lines” Thicke and actress Paula Patton has hit the rocks
this week. In a joint statement the couple announced that while they still love
each other will be the best of friends, they have decided to separate.
Given the
rumors (and pictures) of how Thicke was allegedly cashing in on his newfound
fame with women not his wife, and Paula denying there was anything wrong, it
was only a matter of time before life caught up with the both of them.
Of course I’m
no fan of Thicke’s, given that the lawsuit by the family of singing legend
Marvin Gaye against Thicke for allegedly stealing Gaye’s 1978 classic “Got to
Give it Up” to use for his 2013 summer hit “Blurred Lines” is still pending
(the Gaye family has settled with Thicke’s record label separately). Normally
when a marriage breaks up…any marriage…I’m saddened. But in this case, seeing
how Thicke was conducting himself, you knew deep that an end was near.
I just hope
that Paula Patton, and her young son, can go on with their lives.
And as for
Thicke... see you in court.
SO LONG,
PIERS – Second piece of good news this week…British talker Piers Morgan will be
shutting his mouth soon on CNN. Indeed,
CNN is shutting it for him, the announcement this week that the cable news
channel has canceled his 9 p.m. weeknight talk show.
You’ll
recall it was three years ago when the Einsteins at CNN inexplicably dumped
talk legend Larry King. True King was getting long in the tooth, but he still
had decent numbers, and could get the guests others would only dream of.
But the CNN
execs saw no growth in keeping King on, and they wanted to make a move to
strengthen their decrepit prime lineup against Fox News and MSNBC. So they got
rid of King, and hired the British guy from “America’s Got Talent” and NBC’s
“The Apprentice” (their first hint this wasn’t going to go well should have
been that Donald Trump and Piers Morgan were friends).
Why oh why
would you replace an American legend with British wannabe, I don’t have the
faintest idea. That was dumb out the box.
Then Morgan
has a questionable background. In Britain, he was the editor of two newspapers
– The News of the World and the Daily Mirror – both of which have been found to
engage in phone hacking of government officials, celebrities, and members of
the royal family.
Morgan
maintains that during his decade at both newspapers, he had nothing to do with
phone hacking by his reporters, which most observers find to be impossible to
believe. British police, who are still investigating, recently questioned
Morgan at length.
The fact of
the matter is despite his many interviews, Piers Morgan didn’t make many
friends during his three-year stint at CNN. He got into a lot trouble for his
gun control advocacy on the air. Folks apparently didn’t like being told by a
foreigner what their guns laws should be.
I didn’t
like the man because compared to Larry King, he was nobody. He didn’t have the
pedigree, or the skills of a Larry King. Piers Morgan was arrogant enough to
believe that he was important, and that we should think him to be important
too.
Apparently
not enough of us fell for that act, and that’s why our TV screens will have one
less British accent to listen hard to very shortly.
Goodbye,
Piers Morgan. Too bad we couldn’t love you.
You
wouldn’t let us!
IMPORTANT
LESSON – Well over a decade ago, CBS’ “60
Minutes” covered a story about two young black sisters called the Williams who
were heating up the tennis world with their explosive playing style. They were
trained by their proud father, and there was no question that in future years,
they would make their mark in sports.
But one of
the things I never forgot when I watched that story was the interview. They
were asked, among other questions, if they knew who Althea Gibson was, the
first black female champion who played Wimbledon.
The
Williams sisters said not only didn’t know who Ms. Gibson was, but they didn’t
care either.
As great
the Williams sisters have proven themselves to since then, I’ve never quite
looked at them the same. There has always been a modicum of respect lacking.
This week,
the story hit the wires that Baltimore Orioles Manager Buck Showalter was not
amused when one of his young team prospects, 19-year-old Josh Hart, didn’t know
who the legendary baseball Hall of Famer and Orioles great Frank Robinson was
when he visited the team’s practice.
Apparently
young Hart didn’t care either.
Manager
Showalter was having none of it.
He
immediately assigned Hart to research and write a one-page paper on Robinson,
the first black baseball manager in history and 14-time All-Star with 586
career home runs.
To say the
least, this kind of story is refreshing.
Buck
Showalter is white, but he has a deep respect for baseball history, and a
similar respect for Robinson, of not others who have pioneered the game. So it
is fitting that he wants to work with up-and-coming young stars who have a
similar respect for the game.
I hope
other managers and coaches follow suit, and require their young stars to know
the pioneers of their respective games. Recently LeBron James, star of the NBA
three-time champion Miami Heat (remember, the Heat won a trophy before LeBron
got there), when asked what basketball legends would make his personal Mt.
Rushmore, said Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Oscar Robertson.
Problem was he left off Bill Russell, and when Russell
celebrated his 80th birthday recently, he let LeBron have it for
leaving him off.
No, I’m not
saying LeBron didn’t know or care about the pioneers of his game, because
clearly he does.
But LeBron
didn’t realize that without Bill Russell, there would be no Magic, or Bird or
MJ.
He won’t
make that mistake again. Indeed, if he’s smart, he just won’t answer the question.
Let’s start
teaching our children their history, not just in February, but very week, if
not every day.
It is so,
so very important that they know who they are.
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 5, 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.
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