A response to John Young
I'll go ahead and post an op-ed here that responds to John Young's column on the Truth and Reconcilation Commission.
It appears in today's News & Record and should provide some fodder for additional discussion.
BY CAROLYN ALLEN, THE REV. GREGORY HEADEN
and THE REV. Z.N. HOLLER
We were a bit shocked to read the comments by John Young in Sunday's edition of the News & Record concerning the Truth and Reconciliation process. He certainly has a right to his view and his opinions. We simply want to reaffirm the mandate of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that involved listening to all the stories, taking an objective view in interpreting them, and releasing to the community a report with recommendations.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was chosen by a democratic process that surpasses anything most of us had seen. Its members come from different walks of life, and they have one mandate. We have been impressed by their labor, time and patience. No one has been barred from coming and telling his or her story. We think it unfortunate that our brother has at least implied a prejudgment of them just a few weeks before they release their report to the community. Why would he or anyone else assume that they would slant their report toward the survivors?
It appears that our brother has also demonized the survivors of the events of Nov. 3, 1979. We want to appreciate their willingness to tell their stories. Survivors of any tragedy have an integrity of their own and a vested interest in finding the deeper meaning in their loss and sacrifices. This is not negative. Most of us, including media, consider it an honor to speak with the survivors of a tragedy. The Holocaust could be used as an example. If there had been such a commission to look into that tragedy, one would hope that Hitler and those around him would have had a chance to tell their stories. What were they thinking? Why did they do this? What motivated them?
But who could conceive of such a process without hearing from the victims who survived the ordeal, those who were targets of extermination who somehow escaped, and from their families. Would not what they had to say be important?
When all had been heard, one would hope that no one would conclude that there was no such thing as the Holocaust and that the killing of these human beings was the right thing to do. There are many reasons why such events more than 60 years old are studied and why it would be a tragedy on top of a tragedy to forget them. There are many reasons why the events of 1979 in Greensboro need to be studied and evaluated. But we who have worked with the local task force have not sought recrimination or retributive justice. We have opted for restorative justice based on truth-seeking that holds out the promise of forgiveness and reconciliation.
This is not the way of the world. Given the level of preconceived ideas in Greensboro, what we are asking of people requires deep commitment and a lot of candid conversation. It will require of us all a depth of patience with those of different opinions.
So it saddens us when we see this process being undercut before it is finished, especially by one who has sat around the table with us as we struggled with hard issues. John appointed himself commissioner and in so doing tries to undermine the work of seven very capable people over many months. This won't sell. We are convinced that the leaders and people of Greensboro will come to see the value in listening in an attempt to understand. Others of us have opinions different from our brother's. We will not muddy the water with them now.
Let the commission do its work, and give us a report. It may not be what we want to hear any more than a jury’s verdict is, but it should be heard. Some of us must take it and work with it.
We cannot continue to feed distrust and suspicion. There is too much of that in this city even now. Let's get on with the difficult work of building real community.
Carolyn Allen is local task force co-chairwoman for the Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation Project. This column also was signed by the Rev. Gregory T. Headen and the Rev. Z.N. Holler, who also are local task force chairmen.
Comments (6)
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Sounds like John Young finally figured out, like most other folks long before his announcement, that the "Truth and Reconcilliation" Commission was nothing but a sham to begin with. The decision to blame it all on the Klan and the Nazi's was predetermined and the rest was for show. To point fingers at the CWP would be to point fingers at themselves because they were either duped into going along with the radical CWP crowd or else just plain deaf, blind and dumb. Frankly I beleive they all knew the intentions of the CWP since they had been well spoken for months before this final showdown.
The TRC, was and is a joke and John Young finally has had the guts to show it as it is.
Posted on April 8, 2006 1:19 PM
The events of November 3, 1979 were absolutely tragic. But to compare Nov. 3rd to the Holocaust is morally offensive. This sort of absurd overreaching by one of the leaders of this process, particularly at this end stage when so much "truth" has been revealed, makes John D. Young's concerns all the more urgent -- and believable.
Posted on April 8, 2006 11:21 PM
Ms. Allen is welcome to her opinion but I have a a dear friend who is a Holocaust survivor and to compare a shoot out between two radical groups to the Holocaust is offensive to me and a whole lot of others! Mr. Johnson where is your self-proclaimed civility and sensitivity!?? It was bad enough that this despicable rant was published in the newspaper, but now you have to bring it up again on your blog rahter than let it just die a quiet death and be buried as it deserves. Shame on you!
Posted on April 9, 2006 2:51 PM
CA: "The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was chosen by a democratic process that surpasses anything most of us had seen."
WHOA, that sounds pretty darned democratic! But where I come from (America), democracy means the public expressing its will through voting. Maybe that's an old-fashioned notion of democracy that pales in comparison with this new form of hyper-democracy That Surpasses Anything Ever Seen, but I still like it, and I like that my democratically elected representives on the Greensboro City Council voted against endorsing this project staffed exclusively, I believe, by folks suffering from delusions of mattering.
CA's slap-down of John Young (her "brother," in what must surely count as the most cloying, patronizing verbal tic of this article) points up one of the many paradoxes of this project: it declares itself interested in hearing from everyone, but only on its terms. You will speak when the Komissars tell you to. Otherwise, you will remain SILENT until the report is issued. Unathorized speech "undermines" the Komissars' command of truth and reconciliation, and there's only room for one truth and reconciliation sheriff in this town, dammit!!
Thus CA is "saddened" (the second most annoying verbal tic) by John Young's undermining efforts--his "appointing himself commissioner" and speaking out against the CWP. (Remember, these were the commissioners evolving from the hyperdemocractic process CA has already bludgeoned us with. No one actually voted for them, though.) The proper response here, you see, is listening. And listening carefully.
CA continues: "Let the commission do its work, and give us a report. It may not be what we want to hear any more than a jury’s verdict is, but it should be heard. Some of us must take it and work with it."
Ah yes, we'll receive it as a jury's verdict, as having the full force of law behind it! Yes, we will! We bow as humble subjects before the commission's "mandate" (another word with democratic connotations that CA cleverly redefines). Grace us, Commissioners, with with your otherworldly truth, reconciliation, and restitutive justice!! Away with the old, nasty retributive justice (the kind that puts people in jail), and in with the new sort that is "not the way of the [degraded, lousy, current] world"!!
Somebody knows their Durkheim!!!!
There are, in this article, any number of additional nonsensical statements, pseudo-arguments, instances of blathering, straw men (John Young never said, for example, that survivors shouldn't be interviewed), dubious analogies (already noted by others), and verbiage symptomatic of Schools of Education. Please take note of them at your leisure.
Posted on April 10, 2006 1:10 AM
Allen and the other TRC members are mired in their own deceptions. A commission after WW2 so that the Nazi's could exlain why they were so BAD! What a innovative idea. It's just to bad that Adolf decided to shoot himself in the mouth (in a figurative way Mr.Young did that for the RTC.
But wait,there was a commission Carolyn, it was called the Nuremburg trials and the Nazis remained convinced of their policies till the end.
All John did was to let us know that the CWP had the same mindset as the Nazis and, ultimately, suffered the same fate.
Posted on April 10, 2006 8:12 PM
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Posted on November 7, 2006 11:20 AM