POLITICS: Man Retires Rather Than Honor Helms

Ernest T Spoon sent me this article from The Charlotte Observer. I edited it down some, but here's a link to the original piece. - OlderMusicGeek

Man retires rather than honor Helms
By Ryan Teague Beckwith
(Raleigh) News & Observer

RALEIGH --
L.F. Eason III gave up the only job he'd ever had rather than lower a flag this week to honor former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms.

Eason, a 29-year veteran of the state Department of Agriculture, instructed his staff at a small Raleigh lab not to fly the U.S. or N.C. flags at half staff Monday as called for in a directive to all state agencies by Gov. Mike Easley.

When a superior ordered the lab to follow the directive, Eason decided to retire rather than pay tribute to Helms.

“I … understand that my decision is not acceptable. You cannot ignore that fact. There is the law, but there is also a higher law I must follow as a matter of conscience,” he wrote to Easley and Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler.

“Regardless of any executive proclamation, I do not want the flags at the North Carolina Standards Laboratory flown at half staff to honor Jesse Helms any time this week,” Eason wrote just after midnight, according to e-mails released in response to a public records request.

He told his staff that he did not think it was appropriate to honor Helms because of his “doctrine of negativity, hate and prejudice” and his opposition to civil rights bills and the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

When the lab opened Monday morning, the flags were not put out at all, but an employee called Eason's boss, Stephen Benjamin. Around 10:45 a.m., Benjamin told one of Eason's co-workers to put the flags at half staff.

No one in the governor's office was aware of any times in recent memory when a state employee refused to lower a flag. Brian Long, a spokesman for the Agriculture department, said Eason's refusal was unexpected since he has not had similar problems in the past.

In a string of e-mails with his superiors, Eason, 51, was told he could either lower the flags or retire immediately.

He pleaded to be allowed to stay.

Eason, who had worked for the agriculture department since graduating from college, was paid $65,235.

It was not the first time Eason felt uneasy about lowering the flag.

A registered Democrat who said he frequently votes a split ticket, Eason said he had no problems lowering the flag for former Sen. Terry Sanford or President Ronald Reagan. But he remembers wondering whether he would be able to lower the flag after President Richard Nixon's funeral.

He never had to make that decision, since it rained both days.

But it was sunny Monday. And Eason is now out of a job.

A link to the original article

CULTURE/SOCIETY: A Belated Martin Luther King Jr Day Post

This is me, not a reprinted article. - OlderMusicGeek

Ever since I started, I've always felt guilty after Dr Martin Luther King Jr Day rolls around.

I feel like I should say something, but I don't know what to say that hasn't already been said better.

The problem is I feel I owe him - AND all the others like him - who fought to make black people more accepted and welcomed into American society. Admittedly, they still aren't as accepted as they should be, but it's a lot farther than it was in the '50's.

I'm a white - or European-American. So MLK's and his fellow civil rights fighters' legacy doesn't affect me as much as others.

But it does - and did - affect me in some profound ways. One, because I was married to a black woman for 11 years. And two, because my daughter is obviously a mixed race child.

(My ex's and my break up did not have to do with our races - we were just a mismatched couple.)

But because of people like MLK, my ex and I lived a pretty normal life. No crosses on our lawns. Most neighbors readily accepting us and finding us and our daughter a perfectly normal addition to the neighborhood.

I remember talking with a bus driver, an older lady, whose uncle married a black woman who he met in the army. They apparently went out a lot in uniform, because people seemed to accept a white male soldier taking a black female soldier out and about, but not a white male civilian going out with a black female civilian.

And everybody always seems to love our daughter. (Apparently where we've failed as a couple, we've succeeded as parents!) They tell us how our daughter is such a good child and good influence. I don't think that many white folks would say that about a mixed race child in the '50's - at least, not an outgoing and talkative black child.

And my daughter is readily accepted by the kids, mostly white, at her school. And she was readily put in the gifted and talented program. - I have to wonder if they would have done that in the '50's, or even the '60's and '70's.

And because of people like MLK, my daughter can be angry at Obama and Hillary for running for president, because she wanted to be the first black president and the first female president! Because of people like MLK, my daughter can dream of being president some day. (She has since decided that she doesn't want to be president - too much responsibility.)

And I guess that pretty much is why I feel I should write about MLK and his like. Because he's helped me out when I was married to a black and made the life of my daughter a lot easier than it could have been.

So wherever you are, MLK, thanks!