EDITORS PLEASE NOTE - I won't be doing.a third story on the migrant situation this week because there is pressing North Carolina news as we get closer to the November midterm elections. But I am keeping my eye on it. ALSO, I will be traveling next week to Yale U to be with my daughter for Family Weekend there, leaving Tuesday, Oct. 4, coming back Monday, Oct. 10th. So I will send you stories for next week early Oct. 3rd. As for the following week, I'll have my computer with me, and will try the best I can to send you stories for Monday, October 10th. Take care and GOD Bless!
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VOTER SUPPRESSION CLAIMED
IN UPCOMING NC NAACP ELECTIONS
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Saying that the national NAACP is “at a time of crisis,” Justice Coalition USA, a group of concerned NAACP members who have spoken out about what they see as the alleged mismanagement of the national civil rights organization by its current President/CEO Derrick Johnson, is warning that the votes of many rural elderly NAACP members will be suppressed in upcoming November branch elections because they cannot afford the cost of internet service to cast them.
“We believe the NAACP’s staff’s decision to force all NAACP voters to participate through electronic voting for their officers in November 2022 elections, constitutes a breach of membership contracts, a violation of Article IX of the By-laws, and will cause irreparable harm to the many of the organization’s most vulnerable members,” a press release from Justice Coalition USA states.
Rev. Dr. Cardes H. Brown Jr., NAACP Life member and leader of Justice Coalition USA, continued, “You can buy an NAACP membership for $30, but to exercise your NAACP Vote, you need to buy a computer and a wifi connection for $300.”
Rev. Brown has been an outspoken critic of the October 2021 state Executive Committee elections where the “Election Buddy” system was instituted without warning, forcing two elections on the same day, and resulting in the ouster of then NC NAACP Pres. Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman. Voters in the morning that day did not use Election Buddy, and Rev.Brown alleges that their votes were subsequently thrown out.
“The 2021 NC NAACP State election was conducted under the supervision of the National organization and violated the very Bylaws and rules established by the national organization,” the press statement charges.
“The Justice Coalition USA will not stand idly by while NAACP members’ votes are suppressed through another NAACP election cycle,” it continued. “The NAACP is in a time of crisis, we need all hands on deck to push back against the barriers established by National to suppress the vote of our most vulnerable members, and resist the dismantling of the mission and constitution of the 1909 NAACP.
Rev. Brown also raised concern about a recent story in the Raleigh News & Observer/Charlotte Observer newspapers, which at first falsely alleged that the NC NAACP had its federal tax-exempt status revoked because the state conference had not filed a return for the past three years due to alleged internal conflicts.
It was later reported that no NAACP conference or branch in the nation had actually filed a federal tax return because of a March 2020 agreement between Derrick Johnson and the Internal Revenue Service to allow all NAACP units to be counted in the national organization’s group federal tax return.
“We call on the NAACP /CEO to disclose the nature of the tax status modifications he made when he set up the NAACP Empowerment Program, Inc. (501)(c)(3) New York Corporation and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Inc. (501)(c)(4) Delaware Corporation,” said Rev. Brown.” We have asked for an electronic meeting about these issues with CEO Derrick Johnson. We await his response.”
Brown contends that most NAACP members are unaware that Johnson created NAACP Empowerment Programs, Inc. in 2019, making it a 501(c)(3) tax exempt corporation, and shifting all NAACP units under that parent organization, even though NAACP units are 501(c)(4), which are not tax deductible to donors.
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TRUTH & RECONCILIATION
SUMMIT BEGINS OCT. 4-8TH
BY Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
On November 3, 1979, Rev. Nelson Johnson was part of a civil war.
Johnson was leading a group of peaceful protesters during a demonstration in Greensboro’s Morningside Homes public housing project when several cars of armed white supremacists drove up, a violent confrontation ensued, and when the smoke cleared, five of Johnson’s fellow protesters had been shot to death.
That tragic event in North Carolina history is infamously known as “the Greensboro Massacre.” It took a Truth & Reconciliation Commission in 2004 to uncover what really led up to that slaughter, forcing the city of Greensboro to eventually apologize for its actions in allowing it to happen.
Over four decades later, Rev. Johnson said of that fateful day, “Could Greensboro become a Moral Model City that inspires much-needed truth, justice and reconciliation processes throughout our nation? It is my conviction that if we can help each other face the essential truths of our todays and yesterdays, perhaps we can, together, forge a bright new tomorrow.”
And yet, almost 43 years later, Rev. Johnson believes that social conditions are such in the state and the nation, that a civil war, this time on a wider, deadlier scale, can happen again.
“As a nation, the US has endured more than 50 years of white males who have refused to accept the victories of the Civil Rights Movement, of second-wave feminism and of queer movements.,”wrote Donald Earl Collins in “The US is heading for a civil war” in Al Jazeera online last May.
Rev. Johnson and his wife, Joyce, believe that downward spiral towards civil war can be stopped, and people of different walks can turn towards each other in thoughtful, meaningful peace, instead of on each other in violent, civil war.
Thus, the North Carolina Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Process Commission (NC-TJRC) begins it’s four-day summit, October 4-8 at the Global Learning Center at Bennett College at 521 Gorrell Street in Greensboro for the first three days, and training to be held at the Beloved Community Center (BCC), 417 Arlington Street, also in Greensboro.
Sponsored by the BCC, local, state, national and international faith leaders, along with college students, youth-led organizations, local advocates, grassroots and social justice leaders from around the state and the nation will come together to discuss the current climate of falsehoods, extreme polarization and heightened violence.
They will also explore the hope and promise of a statewide, community-led Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Process, while identifying the roles each segment of the population might play in bringing such a hopeful process into fruition.
“It is both a public announcement, and a four-day training session,” said Rev. Johnson during a telephone interview last week. Johnson added that the “people-powered process” is designed “to walk the varied segments of NC’s diverse population towards each other so that they may eventually walk together building broad ‘community truths’ about the past in order to peacefully co-exist today.
Rev. Johnson identified several areas of focus, including :
Financial security and wealth creation
Inclusive voter access and genuine democracy
Adequate housing
Police accountability and judicial equity
Community safety
Quality healthcare and ecological sustainability
Quality, relevant education
Joyce Johnson, BCC co-director , promises that the summit just won’t be speeches, but interactive, so participants can learn from each other and grow.
Not only is the NC-TJRC based on the success of the original Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but others from across the globe. Thus some of the confirmed guests include Rev. Dr. Peter Story, South African TRC; Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church USA; Rev. Dr. Jennifer Copeland, NC Council of Churches; Imam Abdul J. Nurridin, Convener of Imams Mid-Atlantic Section, Community of Imam W.D. Mohammed; Ester Anne, Wabanki, Maine TRC; and others.
North Carolina’s own Bishop William J. Barber, co-convener of the Poor People’s Campaign, and president of Repairers of the Breach, is confirmed to participate as well.
The NC-TJRC Summit will begin Tuesday, October 4, 10 a.m.; Wednesday Oct. 5 at 9 a.m. and Thursday Oct. 6th at 10 a.m. at the Global Learning Center on the campus of Bennett College at 521 Gorrell Street in Greensboro. The NC-TJRC training for will be held at BCC on Friday, Oct. 7 at 9 a.m and Saturday, Oct. 8th at 10 a.m.
There will be a multi-cultural block party at the BCC on Wednesday at 1 p.m.
The first two-days are free and open to the public.
For more information please contact Beloved Community Center at info@belovedcommunitycenter.org or (336) 230-0001.
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BEASLEY - BUDD
WHO WILL WIN
THE BEASLEY vs. BUDD
DEBATE OCT. 7TH?
By Cash Michaels
An analysis
Most political observers see the Cheri Beasley - Ted Budd race for the U.S. Senate as a dead heat, primarily because most polls have them within 2 to 3 points of each other, covering the margin of error. But that may not last for long, especially not after next week’s October 7th debate between the two.
How rough is Rep. Budd, a gun shop owner and Trump supporter from Davie County, willing to be when he confronts former NC Chief Justice Beasley, a professional, well-educated Black woman who only fell 400 votes short out of 4 million cast statewide of winning her last election?
Or can Beasley convince rural conservative voters that she is a better moderate choice to represent them than the Trump-endorsed Budd, a 13th District congressman who is being highly touted by the controversial former president as recently as last Friday night during a raucous rally in Wilmington?
Budd will try to align the Democrat with Pres. Biden’s spotty economic policies. Beasley won’t have to shade Budd with Trump’s controversies, but instead, attempt to nail Budd with his own. She’ll also remind women that Budd agrees with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down a woman’s right to choose.
Observers say pay attention to the intensity of the race by the number of campaign commercials increasingly airing on television. If it seems that Budd, the Republican, is airing more of them, it’s because he has more so-called 527 groups buying time to slam Beasley, the Democrat.
There’s little question that Beasley has aired more positive campaign commercials, citing her support from North Carolina law enforcement and support for a woman’s right to choose. But will those be enough to get her over the finish line November 8th with the most votes?
The national press is steadily taking notice of the contest, given that either Beasley or Budd will be replacing the outgoing Republican Senator Richard Burr in the next Congress. It could be the race that decides the direction of U.S. Senate, and whether Democrats will hold onto their slim majority, or Republicans are able to take back control, and continue to wreak havoc on President Biden’s agenda during the last two years of his term.
One thing the GOP clearly wants to put a stop to is the record pace of judges Biden is nominating to the federal bench, and being ratified by Senate Democrats.
Beasley is taking no chances, traveling to all one hundred counties of the state, shaking hands and meeting voters, telling her story. Meanwhile Budd has created controversy, suggesting at one point that he would not honor the results of the election if he loses.
He later backtracked on that notion.
One fact that is interesting about the upcoming October 7th debate on Spectrum News is that neither Beasley nor Budd has debated anyone before this for the U.S. Senate. Beasley had no primary opponents during the last five months on the Democratic side, and Budd refused to debate any of his primary opponents on the Republican side.
Beasley has agreed to participate in at least one more debate sponsored by the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters prior to Election Day, but Budd has not.
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