Letters to the Editor – January 23, 2019
‘I want EQUALITY, not one side gets more than the other’
I am writing in response to the letter from Gladys Wingate Jules, (in the) Jan. 9 issue.
I believe that I am the “white woman who degraded and belittled the good community actions of a new City Councilwoman.” Given that I was indeed at the council meeting Ms. Jules was mentioning, and that I also was followed by a discussion about photographing city meetings, this is why I believe this was me being discussed.
I find it ironic that Ms. Jules is quite concerned with her comments being taken out of context in previous issues of your newspaper, yet is quite open to giving false statements in her letter of rebuke to you.
When I was before council at that aforementioned meeting, I did NOT say that I never attend meetings. I have attended several, have had several complaints to council members about the state of my city/ward and have also been to council meetings where I didn’t have anything to say, I just attended.
If Ms. Jules would care to go through council minutes of meetings past she would clearly see my name there. My statement – which is also in writing to each member – was that I cannot make it to every meeting given my work schedule. Regardless of that fact, whether a citizen EVER makes it to a meeting or not should be irrelevant to whatever complaint they may have.
I also never mentioned that I am not on any city committees. That would be an odd thing to bring up given that I wasn’t even discussing committee meetings.
Ms. Jules’ statement that I “degraded and belittled the good community efforts” of a new councilwoman were ALSO factually incorrect. I DID mention that the new councilwoman had posted on Facebook about a community meeting that was open to all, yet when a member of the public went, she was turned away because she was about to record the meeting – which she was well within her rights to do.
I also mentioned that as it was a council member holding the meeting, it would probably be wise to post such meetings on the city web page or the city Facebook page and not just on her own personal page, where only her close personal friends could see it. How on Earth is that advantageous to the citizens of Ward 1 who aren’t her “friends”?
If asking a councilperson to carry out their duties in the manner (in) which they were hired is degrading and belittling, then I must ask Ms. Jules to look at a dictionary to find the actual meaning of those words.
I would also suggest that a thicker skin be worn by those worried by such words, because quite frankly, the council members have far more issues on their hands than worrying about someone asking them to DO THEIR JOBS.
I would also suggest that Ms. Jules not just address how she thinks citizens act toward council members, but also that she address the childish tantrums from certain members, including face-pulling, eye-rolling and bickering toward citizens if she is as concerned about the well-being of council meetings as she thus purports – all caught on videocamera and not able to be taken out of context.
I went to that council meeting to address the racially divisive comments made by a person whom that councilwoman promotes and ask that she distance herself from such rhetoric. Like Ms. Jules, I am utterly sick and tired of the racial garbage that is being promulgated around town; I want EQUALITY, not one side gets more than the other. We citizens wonder why hardly anything gets done around town, and yet here we are, arguing at each council meeting, arguing through a newspaper, arguing on Facebook about ANYTHING other than improvements.
I think we as citizens would find the “sheer joy in reporting without bias” that she suggests you, the editor, find when all sides can even somewhat come to an agreement and not just one side, black or white.
Andrea Knapp,
Darlington
It is ‘merit,’ not ‘melanin,’ that matters most
Think with your MIND, not with your skin.
For years, I have heard from those that look like me that I, because of the way I think and believe, am a “Sell-Out,” “Uncle Tom,” “Oreo” and the like.
All of those comments have come from those that look like me and some even from those related to me, but it is no matter.
I have found that much like the Scripture Romans 7:15, which in short says, “The thing I hate, I do.” This is the case of those that spew such insults on those that clearly choose to use their minds and not be pressured into a decision based on the color of an individual’s skin.
When one uses the color of skin to determine if a contract should or should not be awarded, they do a great disservice to both the person executing the contract and the person being awarded such.
We need not look too far in the past, only to the days of the Jim Crow South, to see a time when, my grandfather would say, “A day when a black man couldn’t even shake a stick at a decent job” because the good ol’ boy system would box them out.
Those attitudes and actions kept many highly qualified blacks relegated to subordinate roles in the labor market and nearly all the “good jobs” were held by folks that did not look like me.
However, this is no longer the Jim Crow South and although remnants of the “good ol’ boy” system still exist, no person can honestly say that such is the case in 21st century Darlington.
That being said, I have known (Darlington City) Councilwoman Carolyn Bruce for a number of years. Although we are not close personal friends, I have admired her professional career performance and her dedication to citizens of the city of Darlington. I highly take offense to Mr. Donald Gilliard or anyone else questioning her integrity as to the decision of her vote concerning a recent city contract proposal involving an African-American female engineering firm.
She did not sell out the African-American nor any other hyphenated citizen of the city of Darlington. Her vote was made the way she chose to make it. Mr. Gilliard, maybe you should heed the Scripture Romans 7:15 lest you evoke the specter of the Jim Crow South, but this time, you are the one riding the horse and wearing the hood, trying to terrorize those that look like you into doing what you say.
Those of this mindset must learn it is “merit,” not “melanin,” that matters in this world. In my opinion, Mr. Gilliard, you have sold out to the hatred that promotes the opposite.
Rujon Williams,
Darlington
