TRC, shootings, apologies… living wage?!
by Matt | May 26th, 2006 |EDIT (5/26/06, 7:10pm): Thanks to Ed and Roch for some clarifying remarks in the comment sections on this post. Thanks also to Ed for a correction he made me aware of in regards to Mayor Holliday’s statements. Maybe someone should tell NPR they were wrong and misleading with this article (because I certainly took what they said as fact… NPR is supposed to be truthful, lol)?
Original post (with corrections noted in red):
I just got done listening to the NPR news report about the release of the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report on the 1979 shootings between the Ku Klux Klan and the Communist Workers Party (hat tip: Ed Cone).
Near the end of the story it is discussed how the Commission was started by a group with ties to the former Communist Workers Party (CWP) and because of that the the City Council withheld official endorsement of the commission (As pointed out by Roch, the Commission was started by those with ties to the CWP, but the actual group of Commissioners working on the report were chosen in a non-biased, diverse and community-wide effort). Greensboro Mayor Keith Holliday has said that in the past that the commission was being led by former members of the CWP in order to prove their conspiracy theories about the shootings (As Ed pointed out, this statement is false).
I don’t know about any conspiracy theories but I do think that the commission is a little suspect, considering that the key players in it do have ties to one of the involved parties of the November 1979 event. The commission should have been totally independent and definitely shouldn’t have been started by a group which is, no doubt, one sided on the event (This statement now false, on my part… see above correction about the choosing of the Commissioners).
At the end of the news report though, something really got me:
…It’s now up to the community to start the reconciliation. That means following the Commission’s recommendations, everything from official apologies from the city and police department, to paying city and county employees a living wage.
Maybe I just haven’t followed this story or the commission well enough to understand. Could someone please tell me how providing a living wage to employees is an issue with direct connections and ties to a shooting between a Klan group and a Communist group?
It kind of seems to me that the Commission is just trying to push a one-sided issue here. Really, I’m confused. What does providing a living wage have to do with reconciling the hurt and hard feelings of a shooting which occured before I was even born? (I’m still confused on the living wage issue debate of today and how it is connected to the shootings. I’ll be reading as much of the entire report as I can this weekend)
DISCLAIMER: Because I know at least one person might try to blast: I’m not against a living wage. In fact, I’m totally for it (see my BlueNC post); I was ecstatic when the General Assembly raised the minimum wage yesterday. I’m just confused as to how that issue is connected to some 25+ year old murders. Maybe some one can fill me in.
6 Responses to “TRC, shootings, apologies… living wage?!”
“Greensboro Mayor Keith Holliday has said that in the past that the commission was being led by former members of the CWP.”
This is false.
“I do think that the commission is a little suspect, considering that the key players in it do have ties to one of the involved parties of the November 1979 event. The commission should have been totally independent.”
Please name the key players and their ties to one of the involved parties, and present evidence of the commission’s lack of independence.
By Ed Cone on May 26, 2006
Good to know. That was taken from the NPR audio report. NPR needs to issue a correction if this is indeed false. I’ll take your word for it though, as I’m sure you have followed this more closely than I have. Thanks for the correction, Ed.
As I have admitted several times, I haven’t followed the commission or the story as closely as I probably should have. I don’t know who the “key players” are. I, again, took that from listening to the NPR audio report, which said the commission was started by a group with ties to the Communist Workers Party. The above statement was also based on the NPR’s incorrect statement about the Mayor’s past comments.
Again… I’m just confused on this story and don’t know much about it. I’m not trying to point fingers… just wanting to discuss and know more.
By Matt on May 26, 2006
Matt, those with connections to the CWP formed the Greensboro Community Truth and Reconciliation Project. Through that project a broad cross section of individuals and organizations, including the mayor, university presidents, university student councils, business and community groups and others, appointed a selection panel. That selection panel then chose the seven commissioners from sixty-seven nominees.
The idea for the GTRC indeed germinated from survivors of 11/3/79, but the selection of the commissioners was put into the hands of the community.
By Roch101 on May 26, 2006
Thanks Roch… Then that answers at least some of my questions then. As long as the process was unbiased and the report was a result of an unbiased process, then all is good and the report is valid.
I’m still confused, however, as to how upping the minimum wage to a living wage is connected to healing from these shootings. I completely understand the historic trends and patterns associated with race, class, labor and, of course, wages, but what does the minimum/living wage debate today have anything to do with that shoot-out in November 1979? Just a question.
By Matt on May 26, 2006
Matt,
I could speculate an answer, but why don’t we read the report? Yeah it’s about as long as Brothers Karamazov (okay, not quite), but I don’t think we’d be having a well-informed conversation if we were operating off of excerpts from the executive summary.
By Roch101 on May 26, 2006
I’ve got some extra time this weekend… I’ll have to sit down and try to read through the whole report.
Thanks ya’ll for the comments and for helping me answer some of my questions.
By Matt on May 26, 2006