Saturday, June 28, 2003

When UNC-TV interviewed me about the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation project, it wasn’t for my good looks and authoritative speaking style, but because they couldn’t find anyone to speak against the project.   Not that there’s any shortage of opponents – the mayor, prominent city council members, and the former mayor who thinks he’s still mayor all want to wish this thing away. But nobody wanted to say so on camera. My job, as a journalist who has covered the story, was to read the opponents’ minds and explain to the good viewers of North Carolina public television why anyone might oppose this effort.   Maybe the people who oppose the project were smart to duck the TV cameras – there is no way to win a complex argument when your 30 seconds of airtime run in the same segment as the news footage of the killings. Your words will sound tinny when contrasted with the crack of gunfire, your logic will pale against the sunlit images of men calmly shooting into a panicked crowd.   Any effort to examine the Klan-Nazi killings is bound to run into some resistance in Greensboro. People worry that it’s bad for business and the city’s image to rehash the bloody events of November 3, 1979, futile to look for meaning in their aftermath, fruitless to dignify two groups devoted to different strains of radical politics.   Let’s be honest, though -- the current project labors under an added burden: the weight of Nelson Johnson and all the history he carries with him.   Read the rest... 9:21:01 AM    comment []