Trump Denounces Furman, progressive Baptists and Liberal Arts Education in Columbia SC

      Donnie Trump, there is a Word for him in the Old Testament, Bastard. He is an illegitimate child of the Republican Party of Eisenhower, Judge Frank Johnson and Lincoln.

   Yesterday in Columbia he Said: ""We're going to stop the left-wing radical racists and perverts who are trying to indoctrinate our youth, and we're going to get their Marxist hands off our children," Trump said.

   The day before Furman held its third annual celebration of Joe Vaughn. The introduction to the event was a flamboyant well dressed most likely gay black man. And on the same day Baptist News Global had a report on FBC Jacksonville Florida, the home of Tim Tebow and his Momma Pam. You have to sign a statement now to be a member there on sexuality. Homosexuals need not apply. Lot in Common with FBC Spartanburg of Trey Gowdy and Franklin Graham and the SOCON School Samford in Bham.

    Google and Read the article. Pam Tebow was Eagle Forum woman of the year for 2018 and her pastor for about thirty years was Jerry Vines who was marinated in the John Birch society his two stints at West Rome BC in the sixties and seventies.

    So Donald Trump, Mack Master and Peggy who thinks she can define a woman, Lindsay Graham and Russell Frye who you gonna choose; Them or liberal arts education. How about your local school board what do they know.

    Trump raised the boogey man of Critical Race Theory. Robert Jones in Shutting Down CRT Debate, Religion News has his number on that. Ive Called the office of Nancy Mace on that one. What does the Citadel think of that article and Trump and the SC Freedom Caucus and Moms for Liberty.

     Lets have every local school board in SC and the new charter schools of Erskine now with a branch in Gaffney SC, my hometown, get a copy of the new book Myth America. Read the chapter on the Daughters of the Confederacy, Confederate monuments and Flags and ask yourself if you have enough integrity to have your children learn something resembling the truth, not the latest vomit of Trump's Latter Day Know Nothing Party

Donnie Littlejohn and Drew Medley recognized MLK Day in Gaffney

   Donnie Littlejohn's mother Elnora died a few years ago. She was a year older than me and in the Band in the fall of 68 when Gaffney embarked on full integration of the public schools. Drew Medley's grandfather, Terry Medley, was on my little league baseball team, the Lions, summer of 65. My Dad was the coach. He also became a good friend of Donnie's father, Donnie Ray and friend Ulysses Dawkins.

    My Mom and Dad were present for Donnie Ray and Elnora's Wedding. Ulysees was best man.

    This weekend both Donnie, a Furman grad and Top Assistant head coach for Gaffney High Football,  18 times state champion,  and Drew, a rising jr who is Gaffney's version of Hunter Renfrow, were recognized at Bethel Baptist church county wide  celebration of ML King day.

   Donnie was all SOCON at Furman and blocked for Billy Napier, now head coach at U Florida.

    I have to tell this story one more time. In mid seventies my Dad would walk out of the house about four pm a mile to McCluney park for softball league play, some church and some local business underwritten.

   One time the pastor of FBC Gaffney Jack Causey was at a game. He was asked by a deacon in the stands, Jack who are these players for FBC. Causey said I don't recognize any of them either, they must be in the Outreach Department.

     My Dad  loved to see Donnie Ray and Ulysees play, two of them  at the time outstanding athletes of any color in the county, Donnie Ray outstand HS Receiver and Ulysees the last Black QB at Granard before integration. He played college football at Maryland Eastern Shore.

     So my Dad Sweet Billy is in the stands just outside third base fence. Donnie Ray is on third and Ulysees has made it to second on a blooper.

    Daddy hollers out to Donnie Ray. Donnie Ray you know who you playing for don't you. DRay says yeah preacher we playing for Gaffney Tire. Daddy says you know the owner whose name he called is head of the Ku Klux Klan for the Upstate.

    Donnie Ray hollers out to Ulysees on second,  Preacher say we playing for the Klan. To Which Ulysees hollers back: "Tell the Rev that's all right, we Winning aint we!"

   Also see Brad Bull great Memory today at baptistnews.com

Josh Crotzer Remembers Tommy Martin of Gaffney

 Josh Crotzer was related to Mr Paul Beam, former school supe of Cherokee County SC, and also to my friend Mike Francis on his Mother's side. She was beautiful woman as are Josh's three sisters. For a while Josh wrote for the Cherokee Chronicle founded by Tommy Martin. Josh wrote the segment of the Gaffney Tunnel for Tommy's Labor of Love published four years ago on the 100 year history of Gaffney High School football, eighteen times state champion.

     Crotzer, a good Methodist majored in English at Wofford. It shows in this piece he posted today on facebook about our friend Tommy Martin, a character and Gaffney Icon.

       There's lots to say about Tommy E. Martin. Too many words to fit into a few column inches, were that my goal.

He made us laugh, for sure. The humorous stories, quotes, and barbs are seemingly endless.

“I’m smarter than I look. ‘Course, I’d have to be.”

His frequent generosity made us feel grateful. He was a man that very rarely said no when given the opportunity to help.

He warmed us with his kindness and mercy. He was uninterested in shame as consequence for mistakes. He just encouraged us to learn from them. Laugh at them, if you can. Do better and move on.

Perhaps, most significantly, he brought us together in his role as a newspaper man.

For my money, you can have your preachers and your politicians. They do fine work on our behalf (some at least), but give me a newspaper man like Tommy Martin, who treats delivering the news to his neighbors as a mission of service. A profitable venture it certainly is not, and Tommy was never fool enough to treat it as such.

He understood the power that even a little paper like The Cherokee Chronicle yielded, and he curated it for good.

Shining a light into darkness is an apt, although over-used, metaphor for journalism. But the light Tommy shone wasn't limited to the shady corners of our community that needed exposition.

It was for the unlit among us. He loved finding untold stories or new versions of oft-told tales. Like any reporter, a scoop and a big front-page headline excited him. But more often than not, he'd brag about the number of people that appeared in all the pages of a particular issue - the kids in a theatre production, the teams playing for titles, the organizations getting donations. Close-ups may win awards, but group shots meant more people "made the paper."

Having worked at The Chronicle from 1997-2003, I learned a lot from Tommy Martin, often while listening to him wax poetic while he waxed column inches in the old school method of laying out a newspaper. In addition to much more, he taught me about telling the stories of people and place. As a writer for South Carolina Living, I'm very fortunate to still be telling those kinds of stories. I get to travel through the state, meet people in places I've never even heard of, and capture a little something about them that's worth knowing.

In every one of those stories, I'm applying those lessons I learned from him. I’m taking the light he shared with me and sharing it with others.

Ann, Jon, Josh, and Tiffany, you are in my heart and prayers. We miss him dearly.