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Born May 18, 1953; got saved at Truett Memorial BC in Hayesville, NC 1959. On rigged ballot which I did not rig got Most Intellectual class of 71, Gaffney High School. Furman Grad, Sociology major but it was little tougher than Auburn football players had Had three dates with beautiful women the summer of 1978. Did not marry any of em. Never married anybody cause what was available was undesirable and what was desirable was unaffordable. Unlucky in love as they say and even still it is sometimes heartbreaking. Had a Pakistani Jr. Davis Cupper on the Ropes the summer of 84, City Courts, Rome Georgia I've a baby sitter, watched peoples homes while they were away on Vacation. Freelance writer, local consultant, screenwriter, and the best damn substitute teacher of Floyd County Georgia in mid 80's according to an anonymous kid passed me on main street a few years later when I went back to get a sandwich at Schroeders. Had some good moments in Collinsville as well. Ask Casey Mattox at www.clsnet.org if he will be honest about it. I try my best to make it to Bridges BBQ in Shelby NC at least four times a year.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Oct 3 Update: The Jena 6 and Baptist Deacons

Oct 3. Here is an aside from a post of Rob Marus at bl.com, commenting on discussion his Arkansas Gazette piece on the Lil Rock 9 50 years later engendered.

"One interesting tidbit from the religious history of the Little Rock crisis that I just couldn't figure out how to fit in this story, but that is relevant to the above discusssion is this: Wesley Pruden, the Broadmoor Baptist Church pastor and segregationist leader, had a son who is his namesake. You may have heard of Wes Pruden, Jr. He's editor of the Washington Times, favorite newspaper of many modern-day conservative Christians, and has come under fire in the past for beign buddy-buddy with Neo-Confederate organizations. Pruden's Times also leads the current anti-immigration drumbeat. Seems, as we say back home, that the apple don't fall too far from the tree."


Amina Luqman writing in the WPost and CS Monitor has a good take on Jena as well as a frequent conservative contributor to www.baptistlife.com/forums , Jonathan.
Here are excerpts:
Amina:
Mainstream media outlets long ignored the Jena 6 or gave the case cursory summations. Their silence shows how mainstream journalists remain unwilling to tackle the issue of race. At best, racism is addressed when it is overt and simplistic. Mix in the institutionalized racism of a town's criminal justice system, and journalists' eyes glaze over. When what happened in Jena has been reported, the media's language has been tepid. It presumes a legitimacy to both sides. Yet there is nothing balanced or fair about what is happening to these boys. Black Americans crave the same outrage the media rained down on Michael Vick for his unjustified abuse of dogs.
The comments of bloggers, black journalists, and radio personalities, along with forwarded e-mail and demonstrations, have generated pressure that has resulted in new lawyers for the Jena 6 and a reduction in the charges against them. Just days before sentencing, a state appeals court overturned the conviction of Mychal Bell, the only student yet tried. But future court battles loom.
And nothing changes a heartbreaking truth about Jena: that some children in 2007 look unnervingly similar to their close-minded forefathers – nooses and all. Perhaps America has left too much undone, become too complacent. Racism and its manifestations do not get better with time, and we can't presume that one generation will be more conscious than the last. Racism is removed by conscious effort and continuous work. Is America willing to rise to the occasion?
• Amina Luqman is a freelance writer based in Virginia. ©2007 The Washington Post

And Jonathan
Given Jackson's and Sharpton's histories, it is not unreasonable for someone, with no knowledge of the details, to see a newstory on Jena, see Jackson and Sharpton present, and to have the urge to see opportunism and then struggle to not be biased about the story. This is the baggage that these two men bring when they show up on the scene.
KeithE wrote: heard on NPR that Mychal Bell has scholarship offers to play football at LSU and several other colleges.I heard this as well. I'm also aware that Bell has a history of criminally violent behavior prior to this case (at least 2 batteries - 1 while on probation for another). A difficult proposition for any college program.
Wade wrote:i find it interesting that the cultural war machine of the fundamentalist don't seem to feel this sort of issue rises to the moral significants worthy of a fight. i guess if it had something to do with sex, they could get excited. I haven't heard any white religious mouthpiece weigh in on this.So there is a lack of outcry by the "cultural war machine" of the right and it must be because there is a lack of concern by conservatives? I'm not at all suprised that there are folks waiting to see if there is more to the story here especially since Jackson and Sharpton are involved and with events at Duke so fresh in memory.Make sure you stretch well before you jerk your knee so hard next time.If you'd like, I can provide you with a list of horrors that are currently being committed by folks around the world, that I have been following) and then you can scold me (while not being a member of this mysterious "cultural war machine") for my "silence" on Jena. Better yet, you can get off your own duff and...The Jena case is ongoing and I doubt that there will be any clean principle players. There are no martyrs nor pure crusaders on either side here. But I predict that much hay will be made by politically mind folk.
Jonathan

Posts: 2329
Joined: Tue Aug 17, 2004 10:31 am
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Re: Jena 6 Case
by Dave Roberts on Tue Sep 25, 2007 6:58 am
Chris wrote:
Dave Roberts wrote: but I live amid a racial powderkeg almost every day. There are bitter whites and angry blacks who have not learned to deal with one another as persons rather than as representatives of a group.Dave, I have a vague recollection of an incident in Emporia (within the past three years) in which a white policeman shot a black person under questionable circumstances. The town was walking on eggshells. How did that get resolved, or did I dream it?DAVE: Chris, the situation was resolved in fairly peaceful ways. The officer was cleared of charges but not for using poor judgment. He left the department. Shortly afterward, the then police chief moved to Tennessee. A new African-American police chief was named. The department has gone out of its way to work on community relations, but there are still plenty of tensions to go around. We are losing another city manager (the third in six years) amid council divisions. Jena could happen in a lot of places.
"God will never be less than He is and does not need to be more" (John Koessler)
Dave Roberts

Posts: 1455
Joined: Thu Aug 12, 2004 2:01 pm
Location: Southside, VA



Sept 21 FOX original post
Here is a great link to a discussion at the Wash Post today about the Jena 6

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/09/20/DI2007092000816.html?hpid=artslot

I thought about doing a blog here about Baptist Deacons who in years past have called me a "God Damn son of A Bitch" for taking up for minorities; and the Fox family well known reputation in Gaffney South Carolina as "nigger lovers"; but on the whole God has been good and I still got a pulse.
Will Campbell, great Civil Rights legend as well as Brandt Ayers of the Anniston Star and a few wise black friends of mine have pointed out along the way that black folk in power aren't much different than whites. The Bible is true, We are All Fallen.
Even so Marshall Frady on King, Atticus Finch and Judge Frank Johnson, Martin a great host who as Taylor Branch reports "Won when we started Walking" are the testament.
When Cory Booker ran for Mayor of Newark New Jersey the first time, captured in the award winning documentary Street Fight; well Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were no better there than George Curley Wallace in the 60's in the hey day of his demagoguery.
My friend Rob Marus has written a great piece today you can click on in a post by Bruce Gourley in Faith and Practice at www.baptistlife.com/forums ; a piece about what he learned about his alma Mater Central HS in Little Rock. Search it out.
Thank God in my experience integratin Gaffney I had the chance to befriend great people of color like Johnny Dawkins the LA Screenwriter, and Fletcher Smith who among other things chaired Joe Lieberman's campaign in SC 2004,. And thank God for Wayne Whiteside DAwk's HS football coach turned Principal of us All as well.
I love them all.
I am a sinner, but God help the Baptist deacons who go to their graves with the same prejudices they were born with.

5 Comments:

Blogger John Killian said...

One man who has done much to improve race relations is Birmingham Mayor Bernard Kincaid--an honorable man who has balanced budgets, led toward revitalization of downtown Birmingham, led for neighborhood improvements, worked to bring the Birmingham school system out from state control--and all without new taxes.
www.kincaidformayor.com

2:19 PM  
Blogger foxofbama said...

Dr. Killian:
It is an honor to have you grace my blog in the comment section.

I like Patrick Cooper's ads in the Bham Mayor's race, but don't know much about him.
I encourage you and your audience to read Paul Hemphill's Leaving Bham, a book Mark Bagget and I consider better than the Pulitzer winner.
Hemphill's story in his pastor growing up in East Lake, who was also Bull Connor's pastor are the stuff of Scripture.
Did you see Hugo Black's Grandson, Stephen's oped in yesterday's Bham News. I may blog on it.
I think it is the heart of our responsibility as Christians in the public square.
I may try to conflate it all in a blog about Ed Young's sermon on Babylon I caught Yesterday on TV 60; then again it may all be above my pay grade.
We'll stay in touch.
Check JPierce's blog up today and the small hornets nest he stirred up with his recent cover story on SBC Bloggers.
Fox
Continue to Pray for Prentice

10:18 AM  
Blogger foxofbama said...

John Rutledge, A Saint was the UMC Minister to Bull Connor whose name I couldn't recall in previous comment

1:52 PM  
Blogger foxofbama said...

Amina Luqman in the Wash Post and CSMonitor, as well as Jonathan the conservative have added insight into this matter. I hope to link them both soon

12:30 PM  
Blogger foxofbama said...

Leonard Pitts of Miami Herald has great comment on Jena 6, and OUtlook section of the Wash Post Sept 27 by Veronica Adams titled Where Were all the White Folks?
Jonathan may want to take a look at that one.

2:08 PM  

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