connecting*the*dots

David has finished reading the “Risk Management Associates” report; I’m pausing to go listen to live music at The Flying Anvil (btw, I didn’t get the report from David).

Tomorrow morning, first and foremost, I plan on completely digesting the entire report. I then plan on reading Jerry Bledsoe’s narrative of events in detail and the numerous reports from The Troublemaker.

And then, as Chief Wray is so eloquently quoted on page 5:

Click to see larger version

I’ll “connect the dots” myself.

With ConvergeSouth coming around the bend (next Friday and Saturday, registration is still free and open), I had a few questions about the second annual festival / conference / unconference popping around in my noggin’.

Enter Ben Hwang, technology and community advocate extraordinaire. Ben is the co-founder of ConvergeSouth, the lead for Media|ConvergeSouth and the idea guy behind Firelace LLC and numerous other non-profit projects. (Disclosure: Ben is also on the Board of Directors of my non-profit: The People, Yes)

In-between work and blogging, we both somehow found the time to connect over IM. The following is our conversation:

spcoon 1:57
So, Ben, what gave you the idea for ConvergeSouth?

ben (phxnetwrxlab) 2:00
SXSW.

Ever since I began tracking BoingBoing and the rest of the Internet, I’ve paid more attention to it. When I saw what that conference did for the city of Austin, I thought: why couldn’t we do a similar type of event with a spin? I did some searches and there were only NXNW and NXNE but no SXSE.

spcoon 2:01
So, why didn’t you call it SXSE?

ben (phxnetwrxlab) 2:04
When I brought the idea to Sue, SXSE was a choice, but Sue and Ed brainstormed a whole bunch of names and came up with ConvergeSouth. It gave us the ability to key in the Gate City as part of the theme — at least from my perspective.

spcoon 2:07
Good choice ;-)

Okay, call me a transplant Yankee, but I don’t get the Gate City reference. I’m guessing that refers to Greensboro?

ben (phxnetwrxlab) 2:09
Yeah, Gate City is another name for Greensboro. It’s the name that was used back when all the railroad tracks all ended up here. It’s still the Gate City due to many of the shipping lines still using Greensboro as a center point (I believe).

spcoon 2:10
Nice… ConvergeSouth is definitely strong enough to carry over that subtlety.

Ok, speaking of SXSW, Austin had a few things going for it before the launch of the event 15 years ago; a college town, thriving music scene, strong software development community, independent filmmakers, progressive politics (to name a few).

What similarities do you see with Greensboro and how does Greensboro differentiate itself — good, bad or indifferent?

ben (phxnetwrxlab) 2:14
#1: Greensboro is a lot smaller. In the past five years, the live music/bar/clubbing scene has gone from practically non-existent, to an outrageously fun place for young adults. It’s not a NYC or Austin by any means, but our population is also a wee bit less than those types of cities.

#2: Independent filmmaking. We’ve had Greensboro’s Child made here, participated in The 48 Hour Film Project and three (if I counted correctly since I’m not in that line of work) other movies filmed here in the last year. Maybe it was more, I don’t remember offhand.

I think on a scale, Austin is larger and more diverse, but Greensboro is like a teenager eager to leave the nest and go play in the bigger world of things. All we’re doing is giving it a few nudges here and there to guide it into the footsteps of those larger and more influential and in general more “fun” cities.

It’s going a good direction from my POV. There’s a lot of character in this city. A lot more than when I first moved here, which was about when all of the action started to seed from what I’m told.

spcoon 2:22
Sucking up to the interviewer by mentioning his brother’s film… nice.

ben (phxnetwrxlab) 2:23
Dang straight.

spcoon 2:24
You mention character… you know, I think you hit upon something there. Friends of mine back in Jersey ask me why I love it so much down here, and I always point to the character of the town — how there’s always an interesting conversation happening between the black and white of an issue, the left and right of a position… is that what you mean by character as well?

ben (phxnetwrxlab) 2:32
I’d have to say the economic growth and capitalizing on small businesses in the downtown area has been a major part of the character I’m speaking of. The left/right and black/white conversations definitely bring out a lot of good in people, but also vice-versa, be it here or anywhere else. I think that this city is a lot more progressive than some feel about it. Speaking from a transplant perspective of course.

So that is character as well, but I’m not speaking to that end of it. Most of what I’m involved in is with the former (economic growth, technology, downtown, etc).

spcoon 2:35
Yeah, I feel you on that end as well. I guess what’s really interesting for me is sensing a tangible intersection between all of these economic developments, conversations, events, etc. — like a crazy looking Venn diagram — as I go about my personal/business life here in town.

ben (phxnetwrxlab) 2:36
Venn diagram. Scary. I haven’t heard that term in… gosh, years.

spcoon 2:36
Heh… So do you think that the blogging community in this area has helped shape this meshed, overlap of community that we find here?

ben (phxnetwrxlab) 2:44
Definitely. The blogging community here is probably what defines a lot of Greensboro’s character actually, now that I think about it. It’s almost like we’re the Brady Bunch. Every so often Peter and Bobby would get in a tiff, but when it came to protecting your own — Greg would come out swinging (or something like that.)

We definitely caught onto the blogging breeze when it blew through here -– a lot more than anywhere else I’d imagine. People might snicker, but there’s got to be something behind the LA Times dubbing us as “Blogsboro” (even though I despise that name. lol)

spcoon 2:47
So with ~250,000 residents, Ben, how can a vocal blogosphere of 50 to 100 people help shape community?

ben (phxnetwrxlab) 2:48
Those 50-100 people are the ones that are willing to speak out in the name of the community. It’s like letters to the editor, except you get to present your voice to the whole world to take notice.

Hopefully more people would be willing to speak out later on, but someone needs to break the ice.

spcoon 2:50
How can blogging help enable different communities moving forward? Or are you going to tell me to wait for Elizabeth Edwards to lead her discussion at ConvergeSouth?

ben (phxnetwrxlab) 3:02
Blogging is a conversation between author and commenter — well, assuming the blogger writes back within the comments. How can it help different communities to move forward? Well, it’s more like water cooler talk really. Talking doesn’t make anything happen, except perhaps gives you more ideas. You have to take those ideas and act on them.

Just because I say “Bob was at Jim’s house this last weekend for a game of bridge.” doesn’t mean it happened; It’s just talk. But talk is the first step to getting something going, or at least enlightening yourself to other perspectives. More options usually mean more solutions to problems. And that’s always a good thing.

spcoon 3:47
So what should I expect to experience on October 13th & 14th?

ben (phxnetwrxlab) 3:53
The ability to explore different mediums to amplify your voice… or to simply listen to those who are doing so.

We (Media|ConvergeSouth) ask that artists contribute, because their talent is in the driver’s seat (we have contributors from as far as the UK).

The main event (ConvergeSouth) surrounds technology and the people that use them to build social circles. Hopefully those circles intersect some like your Venn diagrams and create and benefit the larger community.

But more than anything, we simply want people to have a good time, because as part of the all-volunteer staff, we’d like to see that our time was well spent in helping the community (both online and off) by creating this annual event.

spcoon 3:55
Thanks, Ben!

/end interview

Street musicians have already begun performing. The first scheduled band, The Avett Brothers, hit the stage under the MLK train trestle at 7pm. The Violent Femmes go on at 10:30pm (I’m a pseudo-fan from the 80’s, but I’m looking out for Whild Peach tonight).

See you there!

To attend the free preview screening tonight at 7pm Friday night, please reply to this RSVP e-mail. The theater address is:

Carmike Market Fair 15 (Google Maps)
1916 Skibo Road
Fayetteville, NC
910-868-9434

Enjoy!

(originally uploaded by elmada)

Kite flying has no integrity? You learn something new everyday.

The Melting Pot on Battleground isn’t much to write home about; a lot of cash for some melted cheese, Chinese hot pot and some hot fudge drenched dessert… but I’ll take the company any day of the week.

I almost died on Friday as I moved my brother into his new house. We absolutely baked in the 100 degree+ sun for 6 hours, taking breaks every 20 minutes or so just to stay conscious.

A big shout of respect to day laborers.

Once we finished up I headed over to the Juice Shop on Lawndale to grab a smoothie, hoping and praying for a brain freeze. The girl at the counter looked at me as if my hair were on fire while I tried my best to order a tall citrus smoothie (so good!)… I think my eyeballs were cooked up and clouded like poached eggs, as everything was foggy for the remainder of the afternoon.

So yes, the weather has been crazy hot for my first summer in North Carolina and I’m kinda depressed about it. Unlike some people, I actually buy into the thesis behind Al Gore’s scientifically fueled presentation / movie, so the heat is not only unbearable, but a moment to moment reminder that we’re in deep shit as a planet.

And then Sandi Fontaine comes along and confuses me even more:

I don’t know if I want to slap her silly or ask for a tall glass of milk.

(via Neatorama)

(shot on W. Market Street in Greensboro, North Carolina)

And *that’s* my beef with organized religion.

Call me crazy, but I like to trip, fall, learn from the experience and re-approach society with lessons in tow. To me, that’s what life is all about. If I were reared with any of the organized play-books for life… man, I don’t know. I trust the aggregate of reads much more than any singular text.

UPDATE: Marcus took down his blog as he now prepares to run for the chair of the state Republican Party. God bless Google cache.

Vernon’s made a new buddy-in-hate, good ol’ boy Rush Limbaugh… and he’s bubbling over with joy. Hmm.. let me try to recreate the vibe of Vern’s email newsletter for you:

RUSH: You’ve gotta hear this campaign commercial. There’s a man running for office as a Republican, running for Congress in … North Carolina. His name is Vernon Robinson. The audio is what we have here, obviously. The video to his commercial is … on his website. (Laughing.) I don’t even want to characterize it. Just listen to this commercial.

RUSH: Goes out with Leave It To Beaver music. I should point out Vernon Robinson is black, and when he mentions Sharpton and Jackson — have you seen the spot? When he gets to Jackson, he found a mug shot of Jesse Jackson and that’s what he runs and he found a picture of Sharpton with an Afro from years and years ago. (Laughing.) This is a national campaign. I mean, he’s talking about national issues. They all have impact locally, but I thought it was the Democrats that were going to nationalize the election this year! I thought Democrats were going to do that. That is Vernon Robinson who is running for Congress … He’s getting grief like you can’t believe. This is one of the best political ads in a long, long time, and can I ask you: When you heard that, folks, when you heard that, weren’t you going, “Yeah! Okay, yeah, yeah,” and, “Why don’t more Republicans talk like this? Why don’t more of them say these are the problems that we face?” And here’s Vernon Robinson in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, saying: I’m a pioneer, and I will take the arrows.
…

RUSH: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina - this is Jean. Welcome to the program.

JEAN: Well hello, mega dittos. … I wanted to say Vernon is a man.

RUSH: Do you know Vernon Robinson?

JEAN: No. I don’t know him personally. I just love his ah what can you say. He stands for something, regardless.

RUSH: Yes he does.

JEAN: I love a man. That’s my man.

RUSH: He stands for a lot of things.

JEAN: Yes. Besides yourself, that’s one I wouldn’t mind marrying.

RUSH: (Laughing) … I’ll tell you what’s do. She’s calling about an ad. Vernon Robinson is running for Congress as a Republican in … North Carolina. He has one of the best television ads out there in a long time. We have the audio to it. We are going to link to this at rushlimbaugh.com, link to his website because the video of this ad will start playing automatically once you log on to his website. … We mention Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton in this ad. And the picture of the Reverend Jackson in this ad is his mugshot. … The picture of the Reverend Sharpton is back in the big jewelry, big hair, heavier days. I think he’s got a medallion on. He’s wearing a cleric’s collar …

RUSH: And of course it concludes with Leave it to Beaver type music. That is just a great, great ad. And by the way, again we were told the Democrats are going to be running a national campaign in their House races this year. Sounds to me like Vernon Robinson, who is black by the way, and he is a target now, they are targeting this guy like - he’s going to be targeted not to the extent Clarence Thomas was — but maybe Michael Steele, Ken Blackwell, Lynn Swann. This is, I mean pardon the French here, this is off the plantation. He has escaped and wandered off the liberal Democrat plantation. This is not allowed. This is not permitted. If they could, they’d grab this guy and send him to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and let Hillary as Nurse Ratchet try to get his mind right. Either that or send him to the warden in Cool Hand Luke and put him in the box. I can’t tell you folks. This wouldn’t have happened 20 years ago. You wouldn’t have had a black … congressional candidate in North Carolina running a spot like this. And mocking the Reverend Jackson and Al Sharpton. But it’s a new day out there. Vernon Robinson, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
…

RUSH: Folks, don’t panic out there. Vernon Robinson’s website is not broken. The link is not broken. We’ve just shut down their server. We’ve overloaded the server at the Vernon Robinson campaign site where we’ve got the link posted to see his great TV ad. Just be patient. And as people get in and get out of there, the traffic will subside and you will be able to get in. But the site’s working fine. We’ve sent more people than their server can handle and this happens, we shut down servers routinely on this program.

Without your immediate financial support, Vernon cannot create new ads and put them on TV and radio! Please help Vernon make more ads that Rush Limbaugh says every Republican should be using.

Limbaugh played the Robinson ad twice. It was almost as if he was thinking, “Yeehaw! Someone else can hate more than me!” Remember kids, free speech is a beautiful thing, as it can help us find the bigots amongst us!

So much for trying.

Look, I’m not trying to force an opinion on anyone. It’s a well-known fact that in the very least, the Greensboro Police Department did not protect and serve its community on 11/3/79 — specifically, Morningside Homes and numerous other Greensboro residents who collected that morning to protest with the CWP (an organization armed with a location specific, city-sanctioned march permit).

Over the last month or so, conversations around town surrounding the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report — with a subsequent recommendation for the city to apologize for its role in the escalation of violence — has numerous residents and/or neighbors of Greensboro heroically trying to sweep that historical fact under the rug.

Completely blind to the negative, residual effects of 11/3/79 on other people within their own community — voices who have been silenced over the years and up through this loud and conflicting debate of privileged people on computers — people valiantly press on:

• meblogin: “How about nobody apologizes and Greensboro continues to be a great place where a horrid event took place?”…
• Dr. Mary Johnson: …”Hey Bubba, let’s you and me take off the albatross, go pay that cover and get some nice Southern iced tea. Not San Francisco, not Boston, not Seattle, not New York City tea. But good old-fashioned Greensboro, North Carolina iced tea. And let’s talk about something else.”
• Jeffrey Sykes: …”I’d dare say you and Andy and Sean and the TRC process have done more to hurt the national image of your city by ripping open a healed wound just to see what would happen.”…

The details behind the 11/3/79 incident were already well documented in literature, long before the initiation of the TRC process or the release of the report and recommendations.

From the May 2001 anthology entitled, Police Brutality:

[…]

Perhaps the worst incident occurred on November 3, 1979, in Greensboro, North Carolina, where five members of the Communist Workers Party were murdered by Klansmen and Nazis during an anti-Klan demonstration.

Not only did the Greensboro police know of the Klan’s plan to attack the demonstration but, just minutes before the confrontation, nearly all on-duty officers were called to the other side of town for a “lunch” break. When the shooting stopped, there was not a cop in sight.

Although the entire episode was caught on videotape, the all-White jury concluded that there was insufficient evidence to convict anyone.

[…]

Sorry folks, but the facts are out there for the world to see and they have been for years. You’d be dumbstruck by the sheer amount of evidence of police wrong-doing you could find in the Chapel Hill library.

Non-privileged folk in our community, such as former residents of Morningside — people who were most affected by the uncontested crossfire of hate on 11/3/79 and similar attitudes of institutional indifference that exists today — have already ingrained the details surrounding the event into their psyche long ago.

And I’d bet that image ain’t too pretty, either.

Examples of outside-the-community crafted literature and mounds of evidence available to the public is simply icing on the cake.

To me, it’s clear that city leadership, as a majority, doesn’t care at all about these ingrained attitudes, so my blunt question for you — my fellow residents and neighbors of Greensboro (online) — is do you give two shits?

Because, while over time this conversational meme may putter out online and people will go back to focusing on their own lives, getting ready for back to school specials and the eventual holiday shopping season, this moment is our opportunity to approach these issues, out in the open, in an honest discussion to bridge even broader issues that currently affect all residents of Greensboro proper.

For if we continue with these attitudes, and life returns to “normal” for the majority of us, the streets of Greensboro — especially the ones less traveled by you or me — will continue to whisper, edify and drift apart.

To make a point, I’ve tweaked one line from the glowing write-up Charles Brantley Aycock received at The Architect Of The Capitol site, which proudly displays his memorial bronze, to read:

Charles Brantley Aycock was born on November 1, 1859, on a farm near Fremont in Wayne County, North Carolina. Though his father died when he was 15, his mother and older brothers recognized his abilities and determined that he should go to college. After graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1880 with first honors in both oratory and essay writing, he entered law practice in Goldsboro and supplemented his income by teaching school. His success in both fields led to his appointment as superintendent of schools for Wayne County and to service on the school board in Goldsboro.

His political career began in 1888 as a presidential elector for Grover Cleveland, when he gained distinction as an orator and political debater. From 1893 to 1897 he served as U.S. attorney for the eastern district of North Carolina, and he was elected governor in 1900 after participating as a primary conspirator in the murderous 1898 Wilmington Race Riot, which proved to be the one and only coup d’etat in United States history. His greatest achievement in office was in education, to which he was dedicated after watching his mother make her mark when signing a deed. He felt that no lasting social reform could be accomplished without education. He supported increased salaries for teachers, longer school terms, and new school buildings; almost 3000 schools were built during his administration. Other reforms he supported included laws to establish fair election machinery, to prevent lynching, to erect a reformatory for boys, and to restrict child labor.

He resumed his law practice in 1905, but in 1911 he yielded to pressure to seek the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. He died on April 4, 1912, while campaigning.

The truth is a bitch, eh? Unfortunately, I don’t have the time, nor the energy to get into a battle to add the contextual facts to his Wikipedia entry.

Sources:

• Jackson Davis Collection: General Education Board
• The History of Jim Crow: Biography: Alex Manly
• News & Observer: A fitting response to Wilmington 1898
• Politics in the South: The Populist Style Of Politics
• The North Carolina Election Of 1898: Grand Democratic Rally

Exactly eighty-one years before the mess of 11/3/1979, a coalition of white leaders and white supremacists took to the streets in Wilmington, North Carolina, killing over a hundred black people in the process of performing a coup d’etat.

The Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 was tragic on three distinct levels:

1. A group of white political and business leaders stole an election, where black people had successfully served in positions of local government just 25 years following the end of the Civil War.
2. Not content with the speed of the political change over, the newly “elected” powers overthrew the established leaders by launching a riot, resulting in the murder of more than a hundred black people, while driving numerous more out of town.
3. The progressive nature of black citizenship and inter-racial political cooperation in North Carolina absolutely preceded the national civil rights movent of the 50’s and 60’s; this one event completely reversed the course of civil rights in all of North Carolina and served as a signal to the nation that blacks continued to have zero civil rights.

Fun fact: The next five governors of North Carolina had all participated in the coup and riot of 1898, including former governor Charles B. Aycock. Greensboro residents are distinctly familiar with that name.

The 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission released their report just five days after the Greenboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report went public. Considering that the events of ‘79 pale in comparrison to the massacre - coup d’tat of ‘98, and based on the often chilly, local conversation surrounding the GTRC report, I can only guess how many supposed “progressive” North Carolinians will view the recomendations of the State President of the NAACP, let alone the final recommendations to come later this year.

Not to sound like a PSA, but our collective, understood history too often defines our future actions in defining community. For those of you with limited time to investigate this issue, take a listen to this amazing State of Things broadcast, which dissects the history of the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot, provides context to the political and cultural isses of the day and discusses how the NC State legislature might proceed from the soon-to-be published recommendations.

(hat tip: Andy)

I’m the filmmaker’s brother, so yes, I’m an obvious shill for his work. Andy started researching the documentary in 1997 — seven years before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission even began their process. It’s a project that touched him personally, while driving him professionally.

If a film about social injustice can be called a labor of love, well, this is that film.

This Friday and Saturday night mark the last two nights of in-town screenings of Greensboro’s Child. Dale and Lowell, owners of The Scene on South Elm, have been great hosts; thanks for everything guys.

Whether you plan to read the TRC report at some point in the future or have decided that the events of 27 years ago have nothing to do with you, come on down this weekend, sit back and enjoy 75 minutes of a highly relevant and well-researched documentary. It’s time well spent, I promise you.

And while we’d love to see you in person, we both realize that summer schedules can get crazy. So along those lines, the Greensboro Public Library now has copies of the DVD to borrow. And if you’ve lost your library card over the years, you can always purchase the documentary on the official website for a mere $10.

Hope to see you this weekend.