Goal of reconciliation raises a basic question
I have a question about the Truth and Reconciliation project that I voiced in a gathering recently without satisfactory answer. The question is, who are we trying to reconcile with whom?
Normally, reconciliation is between adversaries. But I don't envision anybody wanting to reconcile with the Ku Klux Klan after the 1979 killings of Communist Workers Party members, and I don't think there's anything lingering against the long-gone CWP. The Klansmen bringing rifles (probably hung in the cabins of their pickup trucks) and seeking confrontation with the CWP's cap pistols is the school-ground bully psychology carried to a vicious extreme, but so what? Who disagrees about that?
I'll concede the sincerity of nearly all those pursuing the project, but I don't think there's any use now to explore the truth of questions like why the jury failed to convict. I have some curiosity about that myself -- I didn't follow the trial of the KKKs and was shocked at the result. But, I'm afraid the digging up of old truths will be polarizing. And I think digging them up, if possible, can only be harmful in a Greensboro that as a community had nothing to do with the event brought to us by visitors on both sides.
Dick Wharton
Greensboro
Comments (3)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
Don't throw a party implying DEATH, then CRY when people DIE, ok?
Posted on May 2, 2005 9:09 AM
Well put, Mr. Wharton.
This "investigation" will only polarize our community, a lot of whom were not familiar with the event in the first place, and will only see a one-sided presentation when all is said and done.
Nothing good will come of this.
Posted on May 2, 2005 9:37 AM
Imagine someone looking to move a small or medium business to Greensboro. Then they look at idiocy like this Truth & Reconciliation project. In addition they look at our joke of a city council, and our schools paying racist reverends $45K to brainwash our teachers on diversity.
Add to that NC being ruled by a tax happy governor who only gives taxpayer welfare to big companies like Dell. Then the gas tax, which is the highest in the South, is going up again in July. I think I would go somewhere else.
Posted on May 2, 2005 4:21 PM