connecting*the*dots

I hearby declare you… a bunch of dead plants.

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Ed Cone, News & Record, 10/9/05
Council members speak on Truth and Reconciliation hearings

[…]

Tom Phillips did not consider attending the hearings. “My attending would not matter,” he said. He will read the report. “If we as a council think it is worthwhile, we’ll consider it. If I disagree with the final conclusions, I’ll be called names. They say we’re racists — when are people going to ask black council members why they always vote together?” He said Nelson Johnson’s involvement compromised the project (a danger I pointed to as early as 2003); that he understood that the commission was independent of Johnson; and that he wanted to know where the money Johnson raised for the project had gone.

[…]

To be fair to Tom Phillips, these quotes were from last year, only a handful of months following the city council’s vote to not endorse the investigation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

I mean, who was the idiot that placed upstanding, community politicians in a position to stand up and be counted on such an important issue to the community?

Let me step back for a moment…

Who am I to argue with another person’s sense of duty to community? I mean, the 6 of 9 members that voted against endorsing the TRC must have been serving the perspective of their immediate neighbors, right?

You know, I’m betting that Phillips has taken the time since last October to communicate to his constituency the importance of this moment in Greensboro’s continued attempts to heal open wounds and move forward as one community. If not, well, I’m positive that time has provided him with a stronger, more personal perspective on the issues that face this community-at-large.

So let’s fast-forward from 7.5 months ago to yesterday, the day following the culmination of the 2 year-long TRC investigation. Tom Phillips was once again contacted by local media, this time with an opportunity to address the culmination of the commission’s investigation and their final report.

Frank Mickens, WFMY News 2, 5/26/06
City Council Members Respond To Truth And Reconciliation Commission Report

Greensboro, NC — An independent panel says the the city of Greensboro needs to make up for mistakes it made after the Klan-Nazi shootings.

The commission’s report says city police didn’t do its job to protect the five union protesters who were shot and killed by a group of klansmen and Nazis. And it says city eroded race relations and the public trust by establishing curfews in Morningside Homes and distancing itself from what happened.

The commission wants the city to apologize. But council members don’t agree that’s a good idea. Council member Tom Phillips appeared indifferent to the report. Reached by phone he said quote, ” I could care less what they report has to say. At some point I plant to take a look at it.”

[…]

Time can erode the profiled face of a mountain, but not the position of this man.

What a rock.

UPDATE: According to Tom, the context of Tom’s quote wasn’t provided by the WFMY reporter:

Frank Mickens didn’t quite tell the whole story. I was sitting on my balcony looking at the ocean when Frank called on my cell phone (I’m changing my number). I told him I was on vacation and I couldn’t care less…….. I taken my last call from Mr. Mickens

Brush clearing, vacationing politicians everywhere feel you, Tom.

UPDATE II: Fox News reports Toms reaction when asked about a city/GPD apology for not protecting permit holders on 11/3:

Council member Tom Phillips, who said he has read most of the executive summary, said he doesn’t support an apology.

“We’ve got more important things to do,” he said.

UPDATE III: Ed Cone reports that Tom Phillips won’t come to a city council discussion in July regarding the TRC report. Tom’s words:

Ed, I recommended that council members review the recommendations in the report and if they believed that any on them should be adopted, they should bring them up at a council meeting where they can be discussed and voted up or down. I know how this group discussion will turn out and I don’t have the time or desire for another lecture from Goldie Wells. Tom

The TRC report is the culmination of a two-year process, attempting to address the ongoing issues stemming from 11/3/79 — issues that effect this community, both as a whole and especially specific communities divided along lines of class and race. Find tthe time, Tom, and be a good representative of the entire Greensboro community and join the discussion.

UPDATE IV: Tom’s foot-in-mouth syndrome continues:

“It occurs to me that we may not be going back far enough in this whole process of finding the root causes of what happened that day.�

“The reason the CWP was able to establish itself was because they were trying to improve working conditions and pay at local mills. A lot of people were getting very rich off the labor of the poor and there were those who saw that as a real injustice. If those mills had been treating their employees right, then the CWP wouldn’t have formed. Without the CWP, it is very likely that confrontation would never have happened. So if apologies are due, maybe the first ones should come from the mill owners and their descendents. If reparations are due, surely there are some trust funds around that could be tapped for that purpose.�

That last line is a killer of good faith and credibility.

Tom Phillips would never offer a serious analysis of the times — the stage of Greensboro’s labor situation and the workings of the CWP — as that would validate the CWP beyond a group of extremist rebel-rousers. Instead, he offers the analysis as a lede to dig a local, public figure (Ed Cone, related to the ownership of Cone Mills), alluding to Ed’s suggestion of an alterior route of apology to jumpstart the reconciliation process.

Congrats, Tom, you continue to do the city proud.