Date: Fri, 13 May 2011 12:59:33 -0400
From: Randolph Voller
Subject: We can do better when we disagree
Americans feel stress everyday. We have wars that do not end, banks that do not lend, and a psyche slowly on the mend. These factors along with divergent views on local, state, and federal policy contribute to a growing chasm between all of us in our communities. However, we all reside in localized communities that need mutual cooperation and respect among their denizens to manifest the resilience we will need to overcome the challenging hand we have been mutually dealt.
To that end, let’s agree to disagree in an manner that will leave room for engagement, while we hash out our differences. My grandfather used to opine that “occasionally you need to step on someone else’s shoes to get their attention, but you need to leave the shine when your done.”
Let’s all agree that we can disagree without becoming disagreeable. Barring that we threaten the ties that bind and encourage further fraying of the social fabric. With that in mind I hope our community can understand my disappointemt in reading some of the online posts that were made in reply to the CCDP press release last week regarding an early voting resolution request by Ms. Miriam Bryant Pollard of the Chatham County Board of Commissioners.
I have taken some time to digest those statements made a few days ago on the chatlist and I respectfully request that Mr. West and others please refrain from the hyperbole of comparing me to “Mel Gibson” and Mr. Gibson’s unfortunate personal rants against Jews and others in society.
I was raised Catholic and my grandparents were Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopalian and Jewish. My maternal-grandfather, Harry “the Horse” Danning was a Jewish major league baseball player for the old NY Giants. Here is a link to him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Danning
My Grandfather dealt with the issue of anti-semitism before, during and after his career. As his only grandson, I respectfully request that you and others please refrain from casually impugning me and my heritage by implying that I and/or or others will morph into the “Mel Gibson” of Chatham County for merely pointing out in a press release on behalf of the CCDP that the communications chair of the Chatham County Conservative Voice and local “Mothers for Mitt” representative for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Ms. Johnson, was “partisan” and “unmoved by Ms. Pollard’s pleas for fair voter access participation.”
In fact, the CCV website states that “In February of 2007, CCV formally aligned with Americans For Prosperity. AFP is an organization of grassroots leaders who engage citizens in the name of limited government and free markets on the local, state and federal levels. The grassroots members of AFP advocate for public policies that champion the principles of entrepreneurship and fiscal and regulatory restraint. Through our association with AFP, we are provided with resources for our monthly community meetings and access to policy research specific to Chatham County.”
So in effect I feel that we were being quite fair in our characterization of Ms. Johnson in the press release. And given the fact that Ms. Johnson is the listed chair of communications for a group affiliated with Art Pope and the Koch Brothers, who are highly partisan Americans, we were quite bland.
In fact, the Chatham County Democratic Party categorically opposes the agenda that Art Pope and the Koch Brothers have paid for in North Carolina and America. And we invite others to become more familiar with them:
Please see the following links:
http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/the-world-of-art-pope/Content?oid=2145190
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer
http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/absolute-power-an-examination-of-art-popes-dominance/Content?oid=2140073
Best Regards,
R. Voller
Chair of the CCDP