Greene County Democrat

Month: November 2024

  • Newswire : Closing arguments: Harris seeks a unified America while Trump’s final rally descends into bigotry and chaos

    U. S. Capitol being split

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    As Election Day draws closer, the divide between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump has become a chasm. With the help of well-known supporters like Beyoncé, Usher, and Bruce Springsteen who gathered in cities across the country to support her inclusive platform, Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has spent the final days of her campaign calling for unity among Americans.

    Meanwhile, Trump, the Republican nominee, took the stage at Madison Square Garden, delivering a closing pitch that unleashed xenophobic, racially charged rhetoric, painting an America under siege and promising a wave of mass deportations starting on Day 1.

    Beyoncé joined Harris onstage in Houston, stating, “I’m not here as a celebrity. I’m here as a mother.” Springsteen spoke to Harris’s core values, noting, “She believes in the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power.” The entertainers championed a vision that they argue will protect democracy, safeguard freedoms, and promote unity—a vision starkly opposed to Trump’s divisive tirade at the World’s Most Famous Arena, where just blocks away, Trump was found guilty of 34 felony charges this year and only a few miles from the court that held him responsible for sexual assault.

    His civil conviction on massive business fraud also occurred across town from The Garden.
    Trump’s rally, marketed as a historic comeback, was instead a showcase of his campaign’s unrestrained hostility. He anchored his speech on his promise of a massive deportation program, calling the country “occupied” by immigrants—a message reminiscent of historical demagogues. Outside, the Democrats made their own statements, projecting the messages “Trump is Unhinged” and “Trump Praised Hitler” across the storied arena’s exterior.

    Before Trump even reached the podium, his supporters stoked racial hatred and fear. Former congressional candidate David Rem attacked Harris, calling her “the antichrist” and “the devil” while waving a cross. Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe plunged into outright racism, referring to Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage” and demeaning Latinos with, “These Latinos, they love making babies, too.” Radio host Sid Rosenberg went further, railing against migrants living in New York and declaring, “You got homeless and veterans—Americans—sleeping on their own feces on a bench in Central Park. But the f**king illegals, they get whatever they want, don’t they?”

    Trump’s speech bristled with falsehoods and conspiracy-laden claims. Echoing his 2016 rhetoric, he argued that migrants are to blame for economic woes, pushing the narrative that his leadership alone could restore prosperity. “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” he asked, promising to end inflation and “bring back the American dream” despite his previous term’s failure. His speech underscored the extremist shift that defines his campaign—a willingness to blame society’s ills on the most vulnerable, in line with far-right leaders who have exploited fear and division throughout history.

    Harris’s final rally, scheduled for Tuesday, will occur on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., a deliberate echo of the January 6, 2021, insurrection that Trump incited.

    Harris’s campaign has drawn strength from powerful allies who recognize the stakes. Reflecting on Trump’s divisive legacy, Tyler Perry said, “In this Donald Trump America, there is no dream that looks like me.” Bruce Springsteen declared, “There is only one candidate in this election who holds those principles dear: Kamala Harris… Trump is running to be an American tyrant. He does not understand this country, its history, or what it means to be deeply American.”

    Samuel L. Jackson, standing firmly behind Harris, reminded audiences, “She’s running on a proven track record of fighting for the people… of taking on the toughest fights.”

  • Newswire : South Carolina to build state’s first individual monument honoring an African American

    Robert Smalls’ gravesite in Beaufort, S. C.

    By The Associated Press

    BEAUFORT, S.C. — South Carolina is preparing to put up its first individual statue for an African American on its Statehouse lawn, honoring a man who put on Confederate clothes in order to steal a slaveholder’s ship and sail his family and a dozen others to freedom during the Civil War.

    But Robert Smalls isn’t just being honored for his audacious escape. He spent a decade in the U.S. House, helped rewrite South Carolina’s constitution to allow Black men equality after the Civil War and then put up a valiant but doomed fight when racists returned to power and eliminated nearly all of the gains Smalls fought for.
    Rep. Jermaine Johnson can’t wait to bring his children to the Statehouse to finally see someone who is Black like them being honored. “The man has done so many great things, it’s just a travesty he has not been honored until now. Heck, it’s also a travesty there isn’t some big Hollywood movie out there about his life,” said Johnson, a Democrat from a district just a few miles from the Statehouse.

    The idea for a statue to Smalls has been percolating for years. But there was always quiet opposition preventing a bill from getting a hearing. That changed in 2024 as the proposal made it unanimously through the state House and Senate on the back of Republican Rep. Brandon Cox of Goose Creek.

    “South Carolina is a great state. We’ve got a lot of history, good and bad. This is our good history,” Cox said.

    What will the Robert Smalls memorial look like?

    The bill created a special committee that has until Jan. 15 to come up with a design, a location on the Statehouse lawn and the money to pay for whatever memorial they choose.
    But supporters face a challenging question: What best honors Smalls?

    If it’s just one statue, is it best to honor the steel-nerved ship pilot who waited for all the white crew to leave, then mimicked hand signals and whistle toots to get through Confederate checkpoints, while hoping Confederate soldiers didn’t notice a Black man under the hat in the pale moonlight in May 1862?

    Or would a more fitting tribute to Smalls be to recognize the statesman who served in the South Carolina House and Senate and the U.S. House after the Civil War? Smalls bought his master’s house in Beaufort in part with money made for turning the Confederate ship over to Union forces, then allowed the man’s penniless wife to live there when she was widowed.

    Or is the elder Smalls who fought for education for all and to keep the gains African Americans made during the Civil War the man most worth publicly memorializing? Smalls would see a new constitution in 1895 wipe out African Americans’ right to vote. He was fired from his federal customs collector job in 1913 when then President Woodrow Wilson purged a large number of Black men out of government jobs.

    Or would it be best to combine them all in some way? That’s how Republican Rep. Chip Campsen, an occasional ship pilot himself, sees honoring one of his favorite South Carolinians.

    “The best way to sum up Robert Smalls’ life is it was a fight for freedom as a slave, as a pilot and as a statesman,” Campsen said. Location, location, location

    Then there is the matter of location. While South Carolina has a monument with multiple panels honoring the struggle of African Americans from their journey on slave ships through today, it doesn’t honor an individual Black man or women among the two dozen monuments scattered around the Statehouse.

    At least six different monuments honor people like Dr. J. Marion Sims, who some consider the father of modern gynecology but who underpinned his research operating without anesthesia on enslaved women and girls. There are several honoring Confederates who fought to protect slavery in the state that started the Civil War and hangs a marble copy of the Articles of Secession in the lobby between its House and Senate chambers.

    The dubious list includes “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman, a governor and U.S. senator who bragged about how he led groups of whites who killed Black men trying to vote during the election of 1876 which led to the end of Reconstruction, the return of all-white rule and the collapse of everything for which Smalls had worked. None of that is on the plaque for Tillman’s statue.
    Some supporters have suggested Smalls’ statue could stand nearby and be taller and more prominent than Tillman’s to give Smalls a triumph some 130 years in the making.

    Once design and location are determined, organizers hope raising the money gets easier with a concept in mind. “We have to get the narrative right,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said. “This is going to tell a story. I think it is important that we tell that the right way to honor him and to honor South Carolina. I think it’s really cool.”

    Robert Smalls’ monumental life

    Robert Smalls was born in 1839 in Beaufort and died in 1915 in his hometown a free, but somewhat forgotten man who lived a life unimaginable to a woman holding her son born into slavery. Supporters now have a chance to make sure he never fades into obscurity.

    “Robert Smalls writes a new future for this county that in the moment no one can see is happening,” said Chris Barr, the Chief of Interpretation for the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park in Beaufort as he stood beside the a bust of Smalls near his grave in his hometown.

    Driving a Confederate boat to freedom is what captures the most attention in that remarkable life, Barr said. “If you’re an enslaved person working on one of these boats around the Charleston Harbor like Robert Smalls, you’ve got the tools, you’ve got the talent, you’ve got the boat and you know how to drive it,” Barr said “And you can literally see freedom floating in the form of the United States Navy just a few miles offshore. All you need is an opportunity.”