A Finely Crafted Opinion Piece By Randy Adcox – June 3, 2020
By now many of you have probably heard about the city council voting 6-1 yesterday to move our Confederate Monument. Last night, I watched the video of the yesterday’s proceedings and frankly, I have mixed feelings about what I saw. My first thought, like many of you, was extreme sadness and disappointment. And yes, anger. The fact that this vote was taken during a *budget* meeting, as opposed to a regular, “public” city council meeting, made it seem all the more perverse. In a time when we want our government to be MORE transparent, we have our own city government making these kinds of decisions in what essentially amounted to a “closed session” to the public. It just wreaks of a LACK of transparency and bad judgement. I’ve been told a “formal”, public vote will take place at Monday’s regular scheduled council meeting, but like a LOT of decisions made by this council in the past, it’s already a “done deal”. The public has no input or “say so” in the matter, because the council has already made the decision to move it.
Aside from the “cloak and dagger” manner in which this vote was cast, I was also bothered by a couple other points that were made during the discussion phase of this vote yesterday. First, the question of the legality of moving the monument. Council member Lige Daughtridge brought up the legal aspect of who owns the land, and whether or not the monument can *legally* be moved, and stressed that he didn’t want to see the city put itself in any sort of legal “bind” by doing something that was contrary to state law. Council member Andre Knight responded to Daughtridge’s concerns by commenting that he felt like the council itself should be more concerned with doing what is *right*, as opposed to doing what is *legal* (anyone else see the obscene irony in Mr. Knight’s comments?). The fact of the matter is that it IS illegal for the city to move that monument, unless it’s moved to an area of “equal access and equal prominence”. Moving it to private property, out of public view is also against the law. Putting it in storage for “safe keeping” is against the law, too. There’s no ambiguity here about what our state law says about historical artifacts. And Andre Knight knows this, because I told him so myself in a city council meeting two years ago!
The other (and equally disturbing) comment I heard was from council member T.J. Walker, who stated that while he was opposed to violence and the destruction of private property, “his generation” was likely to tear down the monument if it’s left standing, and this was his basis for voting in favor of removing the monument from its current location. In other words, because there are some young peoole in this city who are likely to tear the monument down anyway, we should go ahead and take it down before they destroy it. Here’s a thought, why wouldn’t we instead EDUCATE our young people about history, and the reason why that monument was erected in the first place? And why wouldn’t we stress to them that anarchy and lawlessness is NOT the way a civilized society acts? I guess it’s just easier to remove anything that’s likely to cause them “emotional duress” from their view, and “protect” them from the big ol’ mean world in which we live, huh?
I also found it disturbing that this council is willing to undertake this action after they have obtained overwhelming evidence over the last couple of years, that this monument just isn’t on most people’s radar. The four public meetings held two years ago (at a cost of $40,000!) CLEARLY showed that the vast majority of people in this city are completely indifferent about that monument. Leave it alone, tear it down…MOST people in this city, black and white alike, simply don’t CARE! Why on earth do we have to spend the thousands of dollars required to move this monument, because a handful of people take offense at it being there? The answer is simply because this has been a promise made by council members Knight and Blackwell, to some of their most ardent supporters. It’s that simple. It’s certainly not because there’s been a huge public outcry to take it down.
Lastly, my biggest concern is that if this council moves forward with these plans to take this monument down and “store it for safe keeping” as council member Blackwell stated, we’ll never see it again. And to me, that would truly be a miscarriage of justice. That monument has stood for over a hundred years. It’s been a defining piece of this city’s skyline, and it’s been a memorial to our war dead since 1977 when it was rededicated to the memory of ALL of our war veterans. In spite of what some believe, that monument does indeed have “value”. And the messages inscribed on it are messages of hope and honor, not oppression and shame. Those who look upon that monument and see ugliness and hate, see those things because that’s what they CHOOSE to see. And that my friends isn’t a problem caused by that monument simply *being* there; it’s caused by a lack of understanding and a lack of knowledge. Taking that monument down won’t solve a single problem we have in this city. It won’t feed a single hungry person, nor house a single homeless person, nor help a single struggling family put food on the table.
The ONLY thing that will be accomplished by removing that monument from its rightful resting place, is that we’ll be hiding a portion of our local history from future generations. And to what benefit? What will we gain from taking down a monument that has stood all these years? The hatred that exists in the hearts of some people in this town, won’t be erased by taking down that monument, and not a single person will be better off afterwards. Let’s at least be honest about what’s happening here and not try to pass it off as something it’s not. What it’s NOT, is “doing the right thing”. What it IS, is allowing Andre Knight and those who agree with him, to have a “victory”. At taxpayer expense!
CLICK HERE FOR FEBRUARY 2020 MAIN STREET POST ON THE MONUMENT
The plants, huge leafy ferns, and tiny fleshy succulents, lemon trees and jasmine bushes and freckled orchids, were displayed on floating shelves that were built at various heights all the way up to the ceiling. Lara (Javelin) had spent weeks getting the lighting right. There were a few soft spotlights above the flower displays, and an antique crystal chandelier hung low above the counter. There were strings of fairy lights and dozens of jewel-colored tea lights and tall, slender lanterns dotted between the buckets. When they were lit, the cast star and crescent moon shapes along the walls, and the shop resembled the courtyard of a Moroccan riad- a tiny walled garden right in the middle of the city.” ― Ella Griffin, The Flower Arrangement
Corruption in the city government is a behavioral consequence of power and greed. Generally, even with a rulebook against it, corruption is covert, opportunistic, repetitive, powerful, and reliant upon dominance, fear, and unspoken codes; a silent threat. The findings of the State Auditor’s report underscore the behavioral consequences of corruption and the use of fear to achieve personal gain at the expense of taxpayers. Sadly, deceit was at play in the hands of the previous Mayor and the entire City Council of Rocky Mount. I say the entire City Council because while some members benefited from the corruption the others looked away. Thus, complicit by their silence.
Adding to the Discussion: Randy Adcox FB Conversation – Not To Be Missed
The Clock that presides over the City Council Business
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this whole sordid mess is the attempts by some to write the whole thing off as “racially motivated”. As if only WHITE people would care about an elected official who ran up forty-seven thousand dollars in utility bills, and then had them wiped clean by pressuring those who work for the city, to erase them from existence. And the idea that it was only WHITE people who talked with the audit investigators and revealed where to look to find the *evidence* of wrongdoing, is ludicrous. The state auditor’s team didn’t enter city hall looking for only WHITE people to interview; they went in and made themselves available to ALL city employees, many of whom are minorities. And they also received anonymous phone tips and emails, many of which almost certainly came from minority city employees either current or former.
😉 Randy Adcox….thank you!
And right on cue, we’ve heard from the race-baiters. Those who immediately reach for the “race card” whenever a black official is accused of wrongdoing, are as predictable as the rising and falling of the tides. They refuse to accept any other possible explanation for the criticizing of black leaders, and fall back to the tired and worn out position of “this is an attempt to silence or otherwise diminish black leadership”. These people couldn’t care less about whether someone is innocent or guilty; their primary goal is to shift the focus and blur the lines between what is, and what is not “normal”. Rather than call out those who’ve openly and blatantly abused their elected positions for decades, they instead prefer to provide “cover” for the accused and silence the accusers with proclamations of “they’re just all racist, white supremacists”. It’s so utterly tiresome and pathetic. And it WON’T WORK this time!
If there’s been anything positive that’s come about as a result of this investigation, it’s the number of people who’re suddenly paying attention to local government again. But, there’s also an apparent lack of understanding by some anyway, of the hierarchy within city hall. The city manager, Rochelle Small-Toney, is the defacto “head” of our city employees and oversees all the departments therein. She, however, actually works for the City Council, whose job it is to make the major financial decisions of the city, including funding city improvements, new projects, etc.. The City Manager is *hired* by the City Council, and it’s only the City Council who can *fire* him/her. The Mayor’s office, while certainly an important position in our local government, is really little more than a figurehead when it comes to any real “power”. Aside from potentially casting a “tiebreaker” vote, there’s not much more our mayor can do to “control” our city council. I’ve read several posts on Facebook recently, where someone has asked, “Why didn’t David Combs just put his foot down, and stop this madness while HE was in office?”. Still, others have called on our current mayor, Sandy Roberson, to “fire ’em all!”. The truth is, neither mayor had/has the legal authority to control or dictate the actions of our city council. Sure, they can speak up or voice opposition, but there’s little else our mayor can do under our current form of city government to effect the actions or behavior of our city council members.
In the end, justice will be served. In our “gotta have it now” world, that justice may not come as quick as some would like, but it WILL come. And those who have abused their elected office, will one day have to answer for their sins. For some of these people, the “sins” they eventually will have to answer for, will be far greater than simply abusing their elected office. When phony men who go around under the guise of being a pastor, and then lie, cheat and steal from the people who elected them to office, they’ll one day answer to a much higher power than anything us mere mortals can muster. And that day of reckoning will surely come to some of these folks. Count on it!