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Skip's probably right there isn't going to be a national search for a County Manager.

I haven't heard of any rumors of late that McNeill is still looking for another job, and in my mind, one of the reasons the Board terminated Best was to make the position available for McNeill who had made it known that he was looking. If I were a betting man, I'd say McNeill's already got the job as CM, unless he's told his supporters that he won't take it unless there is a competitive process involved.

McNeill won't ever win over the African American commissioners if he's appointed CM, national search or not, because they feel Mr. Best was, to quote Ms. Coleman, subjected to a "high tech lynching" and somewhat hold McNeill partly responsible for it.

In my opinion the circus at the Commissioner's level will never stop until the voters in the districts of Yow, Davis, and Alston say enough's enough.

Making Best's termination a racial issue is absolutely counter-productive for the promotion and advancement of black professionals. Let's face it, employee-employer relationships go bad for millions of reasons. Just the way it is, fans. If whenever a person of color is terminated you're going to have a group of people in your office chanting "shame, shame, shame" who do you think employers are going to hire if you have equally qualified applicants for a job and one is black? Absolutely counter-productive.

Liked today's CounterPoint also. I'm sure at 2am on a Sat. night, when a fella's looking for some action, his first thought is; "damn, two-hundred years ago some plantation owner went and got his, now I'm gonna get mine." She nailed it.

It is certainly important to make sure such charges of racism are valid; if they are, someone should speak out.
Thus far, I have seen no evidence to that effect in Willie Best's case.
(I've seen plenty of evidence of unprofessionalism and pettiness in how it was handled.)
And I agree that the prospect of racism being alleged everry time a person of color is terminated would be counterproductive.
As odd as this may sound, one sign of true equal opportunity in the workplace will be equal opportunity to succeed -- and fail -- strictly on one's own merits.

I quite agree with you Mr. Johnson and this is what I worked for all my life. This is why the current situation in Greensboro and Guilford County with Black Officials and church leaders (and some journalist) always yelling racism whenever a black person is found to be lacking has me so upset and worried. The back lash will only hurts the Black community and sets our battle for equal opportunities back years. Before using the race card or even alluding to the possibility of an action being racist we should carefully amass the facts. Then if there is a reason to point to racism there will be no need to say it to anyone but a judge. Everytime I have ever been asked to speak on civil rights be it for Blacks, women or children my first and last admonishment is to NEVER accuse with out the cold hard facts. Then go for the gold!

To be totally fair, however, some people also claimed racism when David Wray was forced to resign as Greensboro police chief. They say he was targeted because he is white.