By Chad Nance, Photos by Carissa Joines

“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”
― Henry David Thoreau

“I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.”
― President George Washington

Prologue

Anger at Donald Trump and the people who have enabled his rising to a position he should never have had has now simply turned to sadness. This is my last 3rd Shift column and I have no intention of wasting too many words on the Republican nominee. His vile hatred and twisted rhetoric have no real place in a campaign to be President of the greatest nation ever to grace the planet Earth. We are simply better than this. By this point we have already seen Trump’s raw and putrid id on full and frantic display. His attacks on women, Muslims, Latinos, African Americans, a free press, traditional American values, and his blinding narcissism were well known before his sexually criminal attitudes toward women were put on full display on Friday, October 7th. This is clearly a weird political/historical moment when the Winston-Salem Journal, who have long supported Republican candidates, endorsed for President a guy I’ve been stoned with.

What makes me sad are the people, the Americans, who support this repugnant human being. Many of them are our neighbors, our friends, and our relatives. What slashes the heart with sadness is that a blind and unreasonable hatred of Hillary Clinton, nurtured by some of the most craven and skilled liars on the planet (including Vladimir Putin), has led our fellow Americans to betray every single value and tradition they once held dear. The real mental whiplash to this election cycle has been seeing folks who brought us up to believe in America, believe in ourselves, and to put a measure of faith in our ability to overcome all challenges, have completely rejected everything they taught us. From respect for American leaders (even respect for their fellow Republicans,) American institutions, and American values, we are seeing a group of people willing to watch it all burn simply because they haven’t gotten their way on every issue in public life and politics. They don’t even seem to respect themselves anymore. Folks who have lived honorable and prosperous lives have willfully chosen to wallow in the most sour and regressive of conspiracy theories and dour, fact-less predictions. Successful people in the most economically successful nation willfully choosing to turn away from this triumphant if challenging reality and hide themselves away in a manufactured darkness.

It’s as if Johnny Rotten decided to run for President of the United States and everyone’s mom and dad got on the bandwagon while the kids sat back, told their folks to turn down their stereo and marvel at how we came to this reversal. That is what saddens me most about this election cycle. People who should know better- people who raised us to be better- have completely given up on the American experiment and have decided that if it can’t be their way then it all must burn and all must suffer. We’ve lost something as a people in 2016. Dignity- and now the bull is in the China shop, black is white, and the rules have been thrown out the window. It is heartbreaking and I, for one, hope that after November 8th a real healing can begin.

“You don’t have to be a husband or a father to say that’s not right. You just have to be a decent human being.”
President Barack Obama

And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Program

In the last days of January 2017, America will say goodbye to President Barack Obama and his beautiful family after eight years. Years where political forces in this country did the best they could to marginalize, demonize (literally), and make sure that America’s first African American President would be an abject failure. The good news it that they failed and the man has served two terms, accomplished a great deal in spite of blindly angry opposition and obstruction and will leave the office with more dignity than anyone who will enter it. In the case of Hillary Clinton it will be because of a combination of her own poor decisions and the withering attacks from the angry narcissist (see above). President Obama, however, will make that last ride on Marine One a man justified. The rest of America should be happy for him while mourning the fact that his Presidency will be also be a great lost opportunity at American greatness because of partisan politics and racial hatred. It is that simple and sad.

Make no mistake, however, President Obama is not a sad man and I, for one, look forward to seeing what great things he accomplishes out of office. Tuesday night in Greensboro, NC our President was energized, charming, funny, and wise- exactly what we all long for in a leader.

My first experience with our President was in 2006 at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Richmond, Virginia. He was then a United States Senator from Illinois with a buzz around him following an amazing speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention where he had the kind of moment that signals greater things in the future. The dinner was the usual collection of political hacks, party faithful, and personal injury attorneys that one sees at those kind of party functions. Mayor of Richmond and the first African American Governor Douglas Wilder headlined the event, but it was Senator Obama that stole the show. Then he was young, still had hair that wasn’t mostly gray, and gave off an aura of cool and thoughtful professionalism. There was a hunger as well. A sense of destiny and ambition permeated the man and bled over into a crowd eager for some sunshine following the dark days of the Bush 43 administration. The economy had already started to show signs of the coming collapse and jobs had already become difficult to come by. A half decade of war and destruction had taken its toll and the American people, along with this fairly cynical political reporter, were looking for a real change. We were looking for some sign of hope in the relative darkness and Senator Obama clearly had the goods.

It wasn’t long after that I found myself standing in a courtyard in front of the former Confederate White House and watched then Governor of Virginia Tim Kaine be the first major figure in the Democratic Party to get behind the man. That was also the day that I got a glimpse of just how gifted a leader Barack Obama could be when another journalist asked him if he realized that he was standing on the steps of the former Confederate White House. The moment was not lost on America’s first viable African American candidate. Senator Obama stood there next to his regal wife and launched in twenty impromptu minutes on the relevance of the moment along with a sobering acknowledgement that there remains much work to do. Perhaps he foresaw the ugly explosion of base racism that would follow his election. An election that stirred up many of the grossest impulses in the American character including the bizarre defense of racists that somehow calling them out for their racism was bigoted in and of itself. In pointing out their ugliness somehow racial division itself was created. It is utter nonsense, but then many despicable things people have accepted as some sort of moron gospel are complete and ridiculous horseshit.

President Obama has always seem to coast above this kind of noxious and self-defeating garbage. Perhaps that is another reason some folks hate the President (and themselves and our country) so much. Even Tuesday when his speech was interrupted by petulant white trash punks he rose above telling the crowd, “Don’t boo- vote.”

I spent time during the 2008 primary following the President around. Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Illinois, and then the DNC Convention in Denver. Truth be told, however, the entire scene in Colorado was too much for my fragile melon. (I may have been “enhanced” by some tea lousy with mushrooms put in there by an old Yippie. Another story for another time.) I ended up watching Senator Obama accept the nomination sitting in the bar of the Jerome Hotel in Aspen nursing a Guinness and prune juice with a Wild Turkey back. What followed was a trip through the canyons of Colorado and the deserts of New Mexico down into a little Mexican town where I interviewed a doctor who ran a clandestine Ibogaine clinic for American drug addicts. There were combat vehicles parked in the desert along the border and Mexican vigilantes prowling the streets crammed into pick-up trucks and armed for Armageddon. I didn’t catch back up to the campaign until October and by then Senator McCain had betrayed his own, formerly solid principles and nominated a VP candidate who was the dopey John the Baptist to today’s Republican nightmare.

Back to sanity and President Obama’s first inauguration. I took two of my sons so they could see how power gets handed off in America… without violence or false claims of “rigged elections”. Of course that cool, clear day in the Washington, DC sunshine full of hope and possibility was plunged into a national nightmare of false accusations, overt racism, and the kind of madness that leads people to accuse their President of being a secret, Muslim, communist, Nazi, anti-colonialist who was born in Kenya and is actually a demon from the flaming depths of Hell. Yeah… that is exactly what much of the dufus set was putting out there. America had a President that we could be proud of. A whip smart, thoughtful, and reasonable leader and we crapped all over the guy in a mad scramble to the bottom. Meanwhile- through the outright racism of 2009 and the hard fought, but dignified Presidential election of 2012, the President stayed with us. He didn’t waiver. The man had to make compromises that did not always fit my way of looking at the world, but that is what true leadership is. Not dictating to the people and petulantly demanding a single path, but finding ways for the people to bring all of their talents, passions, and gumption to the table. Unfortunately, America bricked at this great moment of national opportunity. A whole segment of the electorate decided that it was their narrow way or screw everyone else. An economic recovery that should have been far more dynamic was hamstrung by an opposition party in the legislature who openly stated that they intended to make President Obama’s time in office an abject failure. A party who literally rooted for and planned the failure of their own country in a misguided attempt to swoop in later and clean up the mess thus ensuring a grip on power that would last into the next generation. There are still people who desperately want us to fail as a nation because their vision for America is not the current reality of the great country. I’m preaching again. Back to the Greensboro rally.

Wait. One more thing before I turn our attentions: It is important to remember that while there have been some real missteps in foreign policy, privacy, and American criminal justice, the Obama Administration did pull of us back from a terrible brink brought on by eight years of befuddled buffoonery that nearly tanked us. Bin Laden remains dead as a stump, the American automobile industry was saved, employment numbers are better than before the recession, and it does appear that it will only be a few months before a fork is driven into the heart of ISIS provided the Russians and their pal Assaad get out of the way long enough to allow that to happen. Millions of Americans who had no kind of health coverage now can go to the doctor when they need to and dignity was returned to the White House no matter how hard some people worked to make sure that the black guy sitting in the Oval was reviled and despised. Like or not, President Obama is a winner and it may be a long time before anything resembling the cool dignity of the President and his family walk those hallowed halls again. Watching the President in Greensboro just hammered that fact home time and again. The days of cool are over.

The Greensboro Rally will be my last spin around the merry-go-round. I’m retiring from journalism to pursue art once more. It’s been twelve, straight years of slugging it out and the gas in the tank is getting fairly low. This rally was the way to go, though. My beautiful and smarter than me partner Carissa and I sat in our mini-van and giggled while what looked like twelve year-old Secret Service agents took a bomb sniffing dog around the car and another guy poked around under our hood. “Do you remember what’s back there?” Carissa asked when she popped the trunk. “I have no clue,” I said, but the beers we’d brought were safe in a lunch box between the captains chairs in the back. She gave a furtive look back at the beers. “Don’t worry, sweetie,” I said. “They’re looking for something that starts with a ‘B’ and it ain’t beer.”

We pre-gamed in the press parking for a little while- tailgating for democracy and looking at poll numbers on our cell phones. For a moment I had a flashback to sitting all alone in a downtown coffee shop in Harrisburg Pennsylvania waiting to meet Senator Obama’s local field co-ordinator. It is a lonely, vagabond business covering a Presidential campaign. You’re always surrounded by a roiling throng, yet it is easy to feel as isolated as a man in the middle of a desert. No one talks to one another, they talk in each other’s direction and despair always seems to be a breath away.

Greensboro was not like this at all. These days I am in a stable, loving relationship. I’ve given up most of my worst vices (while holding on to the fun ones) and really leaned into being a father and a business owner. The Obama days are winding down and I’m at the end of this particular path. It’s a good feeling. Feels like winning.

The crowd at the amphitheater seemed to have a similar idea. What I saw was not a focused display of political viciousness. Not at all. The mood in Greensboro was celebratory. The mood was joy. No anger, no resentment- simply joy. Even before the speakers took the stage the people were dancing, laughing, and the kids from the local colleges were showing their youth through occasional outbursts of legitimate school spirit. UNCG, A&T, and of course, the Bennett Belles (Bennett Belles vote!) Smiles from ear to ear, children playing, and diverse groups of folks taking selfies together. That is what it supposed to be in America. People of all stripes, shapes, and outlooks getting together to celebrate our own uniqueness. A uniqueness that is only bolstered by our diversity.

By the time the President hit the stage the amphitheater was his. In fact, I was surprised that the moment he took the stage and the crowd responded I felt on the verge of tears. I don’t care who you are, what god you serve, or political party you identify with- if you don’t get a charge out of seeing the President of the United States step on stage to thunderous applause you don’t really understand what it means to be an American. I got the same charge seeing George W. Bush as I do watching President Obama take the stage. Like it or not, for good or ill this is our President. Maybe I’ve just spent too much time studying history and watching “West Wing”, but I am proud of how we do our thing . How power is transferred in a peaceful, orderly way and how we (until recently) have always managed to conduct our public business like something resembling adults.

President Obama took the house. Outside of the bustling press pit it was like being at a small town picnic with the mayor talking to a constituency he knows personally and intimately. Rather than tear into Donald Trump, the President seemed genuinely disturbed and amused. As he ticked off fact after fact regarding Trump’s bizarre and ugly positions and statements about minorities, women, and his opponent, former Sec State Hillary Clinton, the man seemed a little sad and darkly amused. “Come on people,” he kept saying, referring to the ridiculous accusations of the Birther set. The President talked with genuine admiration and affection about Secretary Clinton from her work for his administration, arguing for the raid to take out Bin Laden to a memo he received from her after putting out an administration wide call for economic policy suggestions. “I mean, it was twelve pages single spaced,” the President said. “With footnotes!”

“Sounds like Leslie Knope is running,” Carissa whispered into my ear.

When the President wrapped it up, the crowd surged forward to meet the man. To shake the President’s hand. Moments were created for individual Americans that they will dine out on and repeat for years to come. We had all just seen what a President of the United States should look like. Some of our own people, with dark and pessimistic intentions will spend the next few years trying to tear down this country and our next President. They will continue to try to convince us that we are a nation in decline on every front, even as we grow stronger. My last message as a columnist and a journalist is this- don’t let them. Please do all you can to resist this darkness and remember who we are. America, like all nations, has a complicated and turbulent history. We have sinned for sure, but we have also risen to moments of epic greatness and, as of yet, we’ve never collapsed, only faltered. Don’t let the bastards get you down. We’ve got this.

Now that’s it. That’s how I go out. I appreciate and love all of you who have taken the time over the years to listen to me rage, ruminate, and find the occasional measure of justice and magic in my rhetorical flights of fancy and occasional brutal attack. Thank you for your time and attention. Thank you for loving this country, our state, and our city as much I do. You’ll see me around. Don’t be afraid to say hello.

Time for this monkey man to sign off. Just hold this truth to be self evident. America is already great. No one but you can change that. We’ll meet again. So long for now.

By Chad Nance
Photos by Edie Joines

“Do you know what we call opinion in the absence of evidence? We call it prejudice.”
― Michael Crichton

“Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.”
― Lord Byron

“Some men you just can’t reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. I don’t like it any more than you men.”
Strother Martin, “Cool Hand Luke”

The decision to take my daughter with me to City Council was an easy one. The intention at tonight’s meeting was for the City Council to pass a resolution (which they did) denouncing the latest bit of manufactured outrage and nastiness coming from the Republicans in Raleigh. The reason I took my daughter is that I wanted her to see exactly how immature and ridiculous adults can behave. She was not impressed.

What follows in this column is not directed at the adults among us. If you are one of those folks who just wants to get through life, make a living, have a little fun, and not hurt anybody while you do it then this column isn’t for you. You are adults and deserve better so please go read about a lovely time I once had working in community theater. (HERE)

If you’re one of those preverts who somehow equates going to the bathroom with sex then you are exactly the kind of nasty bastard the rest of this column will be directed at. Right from the jump I will say what City Councilman James Taylor said tonight before voting for the resolution. “This isn’t about bathrooms.” There has not been a documented case of a transexual attacking a child in a bathroom. In fact transexuals don’t attack children at all. That would be pedophiles. Those criminals tend to be straight males, so this isn’t about bathrooms. That’s just stupid and childish and I am a grown ass man so I won’t be mentioning that again. Who lets their little kid go in a public bathroom unattended anyway?

It also isn’t about the LGBTQ community. LGBTQ citizens have just been used as political pawns and mascots here and they deserve better. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have once more tried to goose turnout in an election by scaring the crap out of suburbanites with some phantom threat from the terrifying others who seem to be in charge this century. It’s a hell of a lot easier than discussing the economy. That said I will let my LGBTQ brothers and sisters rest a while and not drag them any further into this.

Now- for you deviants in the Republican Party who hear bathroom and think “SEX”- This ain’t about your private water sports, this is about real world problems like economic development. I’m not judging. If y’all like to get your particular freak on in public bathrooms, then more power to you. Can’t you just find some creepy, nearly abandoned park somewhere with standing public restrooms and leave the rest of us out of it?

There are people who have lost opportunities and income because of this HB2 nonsense. These are real people, not some algorithm sliced demographic that is under-educated and still reacts with fear and suspicion nine times out of ten. These are North Carolinians who have lost opportunity. They have a right to make a living, and in the case of HB2, Pat McCrory and his pals in the NCGOP decided that their right to drive turnout with bigotry trumped the right of their neighbors just to get by.

The numbers are extremely grim:
PayPal: $44 million
Deutsche Bank: $21.4 million
Unnamed tech company expansion in Buncombe County: $14.3 million
Lionsgate: $3 million
Bruce Springsteen concert: $0.7 million
Charlotte hotel revenue lost from canceled or relocated events: $2.2 million
Five canceled, relocated, or scaled-back events in Raleigh: $0.7 million

That doesn’t even count a major television production deal for Winston-Salem, Pearl Jam just cancelled a concert, and no one knows exactly how many other opportunities have been scuttled by this nonsense. Major television studios, including Fox, A&E Studios, and Turner Broadcasting, have announced that they will not consider North Carolina for future filming if the law is not repealed. Two projects by A&E and Turner that are currently filming in North Carolina are expected to have direct in-state spending of more than $57 million. Google Ventures—an investment firm that manages $2.4 billion in assets—has pledged not to back any companies from the state; this is at a time when North Carolina’s emerging biotech and life sciences sector is ripe for investment and are exactly kind of jobs we’ve been trying to bring to Winston-Salem.

HB 2 could may also cost the people North Carolina billions of dollars in federal funding. HB2 requires all public schools and all other state and local government agencies in North Carolina to discriminate against transgender students, patients, and workers in violation of federal protections. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx announced that his office is reviewing the potential removal of North Carolina’s federal transportation funding, which totals roughly $1.2 billion and makes up more than one-quarter of the state’s transportation budget. A similar review is being conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, which provided $4.3 billion in funding to the state in 2015.

How did our Governor respond? First he issued an Executive Order that wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. Then he went on a campaign of public whining while co-opting the old Segregationist’s line of “Outside Agitators” stirring up trouble. Yes folks, our Governor went so far into stupid and mean that he attacked an organization whose sole purpose is to promote and encourage the flourishing of human rights. Then there is his baffling appearance on Meet the Press which just proves that not only our Governor a political hack- he’s not even good at it. No one who appears as buffaloed as Pat McCrory does on this issue needs to be in public office. They should probably be under some sort of constant and compassionate care to make sure that they don’t hurt themselves or anyone else.

To their credit the Winston-Salem City Council voted overwhelmingly to approve a resolution, put forth by the South West ward’s Dan Besse (see full text below). The South Ward’s Molly Leight was not in attendance and the only “No” vote came from the West Ward’s Robert Clark. In all fairness, y’all, Robert Clark is a good guy, he just happens to be stuck being a Republican when the Republicans in Raleigh decided to do something really vicious and really moronic. He was also maintaining the same policy he has always had in office which is not to support resolutions and declarations about hot button issues. Mr. Clark did read a letter into record in which he expressed his reservations and disappointment with the politics only actions of his party leaders in Raleigh. While he pitched the compromise idea of a third bathroom, (Grown people shouldn’t be having these discussions, though) Councilman Clark also expressed deep reservation at Raleigh’s power grab from local governments and how that might affect the City of Winston-Salem’s relationship with the federal government. Clark’s discomfort with the issue is shared by most North Carolinians. Like many of us he’s been caught up in a political crap storm that he didn’t make, didn’t ask for, and would rather not have to comment on. This is a dumb conversation in the first place and we should all be focused on important things like economic development rather than having schoolyard arguments over potty time. The point of the resolution was a clear, simple one: In Winston-Salem, we are not this and we are open for business.

This last bit is directed straight at those who have supported and encouraged HB2 (Like the used car salesman/preacher Mark Harris) Don’t Ask, Don’t tell. If you want to be an a-hole in private, then do your thing, but don’t drag the rest of us and our families into it. The majority of North Carolina’s people are tired of being a national pariah. If you are someone who still harbors hatred for your fellow human beings and would like to impose your lifestyle onto their reality then it is historically your turn to go into the closet. Seriously. Just shut up about it and be quiet so the rest of us can go about our lives and quit having these moronic public conversations.

What you really don’t seem to like is shame. For years, and currently with HB2, y’all have been happy to shame anyone you wanted from single mothers to the gay kid down the street. Now the shame has rightly been directed back at the people who have spent years using at is a weapon. No longer is it socially acceptable to behave this way and it is eating some of you up to such an extent that you feel obligated to act out publicly. It is those who live their lives in a state of reactionary bigotry that should feel shame. Y’all be embarrassed when you go out of your house. You should feel like people are watching you and silently judging you because of who you are. It’s your turn, folks…

Or we could all quit using shame as a weapon against one another and learn how to get along. Learn to celebrate each person’s unique magnificence. It is time to learn how to treat one another decently and work together to make North Carolina a place of opportunity and joy rather than a land of shame, hatred, and political viciousness. Practice what you preach, y’all. Try loving your neighbor… you’ll be glad ya did.

RESOLUTION ADOPTED 4/18/16 BY THE WINSTON-SALEM CITY COUNCIL REGARDING HB2:
RESOLUTION EXPRESSING CONCERN REGARDING INADEQUATELY CONSIDERED PROVISIONS AND CONSEQUENCES OF HB2, AND CALLING FOR REVIEW AND RECONSIDERATION OF THE LEGISLATION

WHEREAS, the NC General Assembly was called into special session on March 23, 2016, supposedly to deal with a single controversial provision in the City of Charlotte’s recent amendments to its long-standing local ordinance regarding nondiscrimination in public accommodations; and
WHEREAS, the special session in fact introduced and enacted sweeping legislation (HB2) dealing with a broad range of individual and local government rights and responsibilities; and
WHEREAS, this action was taken without advance notice of the legislation’s contents, and without opportunity for input from impacted local governments, businesses, or the public, or even most members of our legislature; and
WHEREAS, initially unrecognized consequences of this inadequately considered legislation are beginning to come to public light; and
WHEREAS, those adverse consequences include (but may not be limited to) the following:
–All local ordinances regarding nondiscrimination in public accommodations and employment are revoked and further such ordinances banned;
–There are now no state or local nondiscrimination laws in North Carolina for public accommodations or employment regarding marital status, familial status, sexual orientation or gender identity;
–Local governments are now prohibited from requiring in their contracts with businesses, even for local public work using local public tax revenues, any provisions regarding nondiscrimination or good employment practices, wages and salaries, sick or family leave or other benefits, or other requirements that exceed the generally applicable minimum state requirements for all private employers;
–Local governments may have been stripped of their ability to use their contract bidding process to promote the development of local minority- and women-owned businesses as contractors and subcontractors on many public contracts;
–The decades-old right of employees to sue their employer under state law if fired for a legally prohibited reason was eliminated, making North Carolina one of only two states in the nation without any effectively enforceable state law protecting private sector employees from workplace discrimination based on race, religion, color, national origin, or sex; and
WHEREAS, these inadequately considered changes are already raising concerned questions nationally among businesses and industries considering locating, expanding, or doing business in our state, with potentially severe and far-reaching adverse impacts on our state and local economy; and
WHEREAS, these inadequately considered changes appear to undercut and retard our local efforts to build our community’s economic base and promote development of jobs and economic opportunities, especially for historically disadvantaged and underserved members of our community; and
WHEREAS, these sweeping new restrictions on local efforts to build welcoming communities are severely damaging our state’s reputation nationally as a place where all people are welcomed to take part in our civil society and economy without fear or discrimination;
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the City of Winston-Salem calls for a public legislative investigation, review, and determination of the nature of these and other concealed or inadequately considered adverse consequences of HB2; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City of Winston-Salem calls on the members of our Forsyth County state legislative delegation to work to reconsider and undo these inadequately considered and damaging legislative changes during the 2016 legislative short session, and if necessary in subsequent legislative sessions.

By Chad Nance

“They’re selling postcards of the hanging
They’re painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner
They’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other is in his pants
And the riot squad they’re restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row”
– Bob Dylan

It is often difficult being a reasonable person in unreasonable times. It is a pain in the ass to have to do this kind of thing again, but here goes. The typical American demand for instant gratification and the desperate need for failing newspapers to bring in revenue has now resulted in an unfair and petulant attack on Winston-Salem’s police chief, Barry Rountree.

I don’t usually read the Journal, but this morning a friend sent me a link and the comment “Dude came after Barry unnecessarily hard”. The link went to an article published in Thursday’s Winston-Salem Journal, where columnist Scott Sexton launched a blistering attack on Chief Rountree while defending the position taken by District Attorney Jim O’Neill. (All while including new points that were already in CCD’s coverage of this story. Thanks for reading Scott.)

The facts of the situation are this: Less than one week ago a human being died after being subdued and handcuffed by four Winston-Salem police officers. What the public knows is limited, and the third party investigation is still ongoing by the SBI. There is no indication from the investigating authorities that they have been stone-walled or resisted by the WSPD or the individual officers involved. There have been multiple calls from City officials and the Minister’s Conference of Winston-Salem & Vicinity for camera footage to be released, but the requirements of process, and the slow delivery of other evidence from entities outside of our city, has kept that footage in the hands of authorities – for the time being.

None of that has stopped the Journal’s Sexton from sensationalizing the situation. This isn’t the first time Sexton has gone hammer and tongs at an African American man in a position of power- it just may be the most foolish and un-needed.

Sexton made a personal attack on a man who is already under the kind of pressure that very few of us could possibly imagine. In the piece, Sexton brags that he didn’t even attend the press conference where he implies that Chief Rountree stonewalled. Well… I did attend that press conference. I was there when Chief Rountree chewed out the Winston-Salem Journal’s Michael Hewlett for asking the question, “How many body cameras were on the scene that night?”

Chief Rountree, clearly irritated at a clumsy attempt to try to publicly trip him up, dismissed the question by pointing out that the answer (three) had already been reported by every media outlet in town, after having been provided willingly by the WSPD.

The Journal’s caption on their picture of Chief Rountree claims that he was “Uncomfortable” during the press conference trying to imply that the Chief was lying or holding back. I was there and could say the same for Michael Hewlett (a guy I like, and is who is more often than not a fine reporter) who seemed nervous, stressed, and desperate to squeeze some bit of “news” out of the press conference. I have no idea what pressures Mr. Hewlett is under from his corporate bosses, but I imagine they have something to do with ad sales and circulation numbers.

Apparently Sexton is upset that after his choice to not attend the press conference, where he could have asked questions directly, Chief Rountree didn’t stop everything he was doing and return Sexton’s “detailed” emails. It isn’t like the man has nothing else to do. Bully for you, Scott Sexton. The Chief of police didn’t bow down to you, and he chewed out one of your pals. You felt like the Chief shorted you and the Journal so you showed all of Winston-Salem what a dick you could be in return.

Lets face it, both reporters and police officers can be dicks. We are in professions where we get lied to routinely, must wallow in cold cynicism to survive, and are hated when something bad happens and only barely loved when all is well. But just like police officers should not let petty, personal conflicts get in the way of doing their job properly… neither should journalists.

Meanwhile, our city sits at a moment on which much pivots, and Sexton tried to make it about himself and the Winston-Salem Journal. This is a moment in which our legacy newspaper should have risen – and they acted like spiteful children. There is a reason that in his recent homecoming concert, Ben Folds was able to turn calling the Journal a bunch a corporate hacks into a massive applause line. The Journal is becoming the community equivalent of an internet troll- trolling public officials and prominent community members in the hope of creating some scandal they can sell. This is the last time CCD comments on something the Journal does. It is beginning to feel like punching down, which is never fun or productive.

Perhaps it is time to consider what pressures and stresses Chief Rountree and District Attorney Jim O’Neill are under right now. Winston-Salem really is a small town with skyscrapers. These men are our friends & neighbors, not distant public officials we watch on television.

Chief Rountree is getting pressed on many fronts and if we are to empathize with the possible victim here, we must also give the same courtesy to our law enforcement officials. First and foremost, Chief Rountree’s job is to protect the citizens of Winston-Salem. Those citizens not only include Mr. Page. That number includes the Page family, and the person at Family Dollar who called in the 911 complaint of shots fired, and the woman who reported having to shove her child into the floorboard of her car afraid of a stray bullet. Chief Rountree is ultimately responsible for the safety of those who may protest and demonstrate in the street. He is responsible for the property and safety of small business owners who have invested their hearts and souls into Winston-Salem. He must also protect the investments the business community here and beyond have made in Winston-Salem- investments of capital and labor that are bringing about a re-invigoration of Winston-Salem. (In spite of the fact that some think it is taking too long and moving too slow.)

Chief Rountree is also charged with the safety of those who work under him. (It should be noted that they do this for relatively very little pay.) Men and women who leave their homes everyday and face the very real risk of not returning home to their families when the whistle blows. The majority of African American males in Winston-Salem are not criminals.  They are men who are doing their best to make a life and living. The majority of police officers are not out of control, racist, psychopaths. They are blue-collar, working people just like you and me. These men and women must be confident in the fact that Chief Rountree and his staff have their backs and will not allow them to be railroaded by conspiracy theories, political expediency, or the PacMan-like hunger for media revenues.

The four officers who began their shift on December 9th are human beings just like Travis Page. They did not leave the Public Safety Center on a mission to murder Mr. Page. Like you and I, they began their shift just hoping to get through the day, then go home and spend time with their family and friends- which, in the end, is what matters most anyway. Chief Rountree is responsible for those four officers as well. As Bishop Todd Fulton has told me several times… The officers, just like Page, are innocent until proven guilty.

If these four officers broke the law then Chief Rountree and Jim O’Neill also bear the weight of securing some measure of justice for Travis Page and those left behind by his death. As we saw last year in Charlotte and yesterday in Baltimore at the Freddie Gray trial, it is extremely difficult to secure convictions in these cases. In the event that a prosecution of these officers proves necessary, O’Neill and Rountree are responsible to see that the best case possible be constructed with care, precision, and professionalism. If there were crimes committed here it does not serve justice to have evidence suppressed in court or a change in venue to somewhere with a jury, not of our peers, but made up of people who do not live here and have no understanding of the uniqueness of our community.

This is a moment for Winston-Salem to come together and not allow ourselves be torn apart by those who would divide us for their own reasons. It is a time for careful consideration, empathy for one another, and most of all for reason. Rushing like angry children in the throes of an ADD fit or hoping that this can be turned into a nasty debacle that stretches for months and equals internet hits and sells newspapers will serve no one in this city. We deserve better as a people and we can do better as a community.

There are major players looking to bring new jobs to Winston-Salem in a way that would turn our localized recovery into a genuine Winston-Salem renaissance which could be beneficial for everyone. Livability is one of our greatest strengths and this is not the time to ruin that perception and reality. Chief Rountree was absolutely correct at his press conference. This isn’t Baltimore. This isn’t Ferguson. This isn’t Chicago. We have this body camera evidence because we were one of the first North Carolina cities to purchase the equipment (before it was law) and it was one of our legislators (Rep. Ed Hanes) who shepherded the body camera requirement into law in the first place. There are many good and well meaning people in this City trying to address and heal the realities and scars of long time institutional racism and chronic poverty. When a challenge such as the Page case comes along we should not be circling the wagons and turning our guns inward… we should be aiming out and working together inside the circle to continue to make this a place where we can raise our families and enjoy a quality of life that will make our children want to stay here, work, and raise the next generation. No one, friends and neighbors, can destroy us but ourselves.

You can read CCD’s coverage of the Travis Page case HERE , HERE and HERE.

More Third Shift regarding the Journal’s past misrepresentation of a story HERE.