News-Record.com

Who are you to tell the Rotarians what they can and cannot do Bob? Perhaps the Rotarians understand, much better than you obviously, that the museum is a money pit poorly run by Skippy & Co.

"Greensboro has long struggled to fund and finish the International Civil Rights Center & Museum downtown"

IMO, the correct way to state this would be "Skip Alston, et al and a private, non-profit foundation have long struggled to fund and finish the international Civil Rights Center & Museum downtown".

The project has been nothing but a money sucking pit for over a decade. Better to take the $750,000 the city just pledged and use it to build a Hoover Vacuum cleaner facade on the building exterior.

The world's largest Vacuum cleaner as a monument to failed leadership would bring in the tourist dollars.

"This museum will bring adults and children from all over to learn about the courageous act that fueled the Civil Rights Movement."

If this statement were true, money would be pouring in from "all over" to finish this white elephant.

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neocon,
YOU ACTUALLY SAID SOMETHING THIS IS CORRECT!! CONGRATULATIONS!!
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Maybe they can put a merry go round in Skip and Earl's palace! Put dollar amounts on every horse that total the amount squandered thus far to illustrate WHY the museum has NOT been funded!

What if we compromised and put Skip and Earl in charge of the carousel?
By 2010, we'll have an empty box marked "Carousel", with pictures of carousel horsies on it and lots of signs showing all the groups that pledged the 2 million dollars to buy the empty box with the horsies on it.
Then, by 2015 or so, we'll have a "grand opening". This will allow us to ceremonially add new pictures to the empty box to replace the old, faded ones. We can invite prominent carousel experts to wax poetic about how wonderful the carousel will be.
Remember- we need to move slowly on this, because the carousel must meet NASCAR standards, and in order to do that, several million dollars will be required over the proceeding decades... to make sure no one actually gets a good look inside the box.
Wouldn't do to spoil the surprise.

Good points by all. I especially enjoyed the image of the giant vacuum cleaner and Prag's post had me about to fall out of my chair.

I think putting a Woolworth's back in that spot would be the best idea. There are actually people living downtown now that could use it.

Bob, I don't think you see the big picture. The old Woolworths building just ain't that important. It's not much more than an eyesore.

Reminds me of a letter to the editor a year or so ago. It was was from a teacher in High Point, saying how we did not need FedEx. This musuem was going to be raking in money hand over fist from all the world wide visitors.

'nuff said.

It's depressing how rigid people can become in their beliefs. If I can be shown that I am wrong in my thinking or approach to an issue, I have no problem admitting to being wrong, but, there are others who will not be moved. I think that this is the issue with Mr. Jones and Mr. Alston as it relates to the museum. Their opponents look at the museum as if it was titled "The Earl Jones & Skip Alston International Civil Rights Museum" and sometimes I think that Mr. Jones and Mr. Alston also feel this way. I wish that Mr. Jones and Mr. Alston would step aside and allow the museum to be completed, but, this will not happen until they understand that their sacrifice would not come remotely close to the sacrifices of those who participated in the Civil Rights Movement. The sad thing is that those who Mr. Jones and Mr. Alston want to honor deserve more than this.

The International Civil Rights Museum should be just that. It should be a living monument to the triumph of will over oppression, regardless of nationality, creed or ethnicity: the Greensboro Four, when they sat down at the lunch counter in Woolworths in 1960; the student in Tiananmen Square, who blocked a column of tanks all by himself in 1989. It should include Lech Walesa; Nelson Mandela; Ghandi; MLK; and Moses.
It should also include the man who married my parents: a skinny, bespectacled 38-year-old Unitarian minister named James Reeb. On March 11, 1965, four years after he tied my folk's knot, the Reverend Reeb, marching with a host of others of all colors and all cloths from Selma to Montgomery was clubbed to death by bigots.
It's ok if you never heard of him. Maybe some day you will, on South Elm Street in Greensboro.
My point is this: the error of the Alston/Jones way is not just in not having gotten the Center built already. Worse, it lies in narrowing the perception of the Center's scope. The magnificent courage of the Greensboro Four continues to reverberate universally, but its glory is part of host of glories throughout history that have each uniquely championed the human's spirit indelible desire to change what is to what should be.

It is a shame, that the true intent and thought of the idea, of having a civil rights museum would be of great benefit; historically, educationally,
and morally? (I must be smoking pot on this one), that would make this a very significant
gesture to the civil rights.

Unfortunately, the leadership just did not get with the true intent of the program. Back then,
when Earl Jones, and Melvin "Skip" Alston, were very prominent black leaders, they would command their racist comments, and their racist tantrums for their wants and needs. And we, the community just played along and gave them their meal ticket. And yet, we still point the fingers at them. To an extent, yes. But they're not at fault entirely.

Why can't we just come out and say...We're not supporting this project, because of Earl and Skip. And, if they don't step down from the leadership, we will not assist in the funding of this project, should we feel that it should be funded.

What a way to think of civil rights, when we can't even handle the economic rights for all the people.