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)
Don't throw a party implying DEATH, then CRY when people DIE, ok?
Posted by Lilly | 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 by John Appel | 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 by Dan | May 2, 2005 4:21 PM