Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 7 February 2002 — Page 6

The Muncie Times, February 7, 2002, page 6

NEWS BRIEFS

NEWS BRIEFS FROM PAGE 5 job because of a prior felony conviction. Beal, 26, is attemping to fight back through the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, where he has lodged a complaint alleging discrimination, retaliation and unjust termination. “The law is dear. But it’s not the law that I’m fighting. I understand the law,” Beal said. “The fact is they had already known about the law. It wasn’t enforced until a higher authority pressured them to enforce it” Beal had risen to sergeant in the Sandusky County Juvenile Detention Center when he was summarily fired last September by Juvenile Judge Brad Culbert. Culbert also is the official who hired Beal in 1997, even though he was aware of the felony conviction and that state law prohibits the hiring of felony offenders for such positions, Beal said. “He told me he was going to stick his neck out for me,” Beal said. Beal, who had been the only African Americna on the detention center staff, said he was targeted for termination after he had taken issue with some of the polides of center Director Dale Mitchell. He said Mitchell had one of his friends, County Commissioner Terry Thatcher, urge another person with a felony record to apply for employment, giving juvenile court offitials a reson to refer back to the law and provide the rationale for firing him. “The whole thing was a set up,” Mr. Beal said. Attempts to reach Culbert, Mitchell and Thatcher were unsuccessful. However, a log compiled by an examiner’s factfinding on Beal’s complaint lends credibility to the former employee’s contentions. The examiner interviewed Beal 'on Oct 23. his summation reads, “Jason stated that he did indicate that he had a prior felony conviction prior to being hired on application as well as everyone knew it anyway. Tferry Thatcher, commissioner, has a boy living with him. Tferry had him apply for an opening where I (Beal) worked When he was turned down because of a prior

felony conviction Iferry made some calls and Judge Culbert told me that I would have to be discharged because it is a law.” The next day, Oct. 24, the examiner interviewed Mitchell. That summation reads, ‘Bale Mitchell stated that all of Jason’s statement is accurate without correction. He went on to state that Jason did indicate his felony on his application and everyone was aware. He had worked there since 10/31/97 and issue was not enforced until pressured to by higher authority” The firing took effect Sept. 26, when Beal reported for his shift at 10 p.m. and was confronted by other employees. Notice of hrs dismissal had already been posted on the bulletin board, making him one of the last employees to lear about his termination, Beal said. He said he was escorted to his locker, instructed to collect his possessions, then was escorted out of the building. Other employees were instructed not to talk to him as he made his way out, Beal said. Beal said the judge had always know the law regarding hiring of ex-felons at the detention center, from the time he began as a volunteer there, to the time he was hired part-time, to the time he attained full-time status in late 1997. Culbert’s letter of termination implies he was unaware of the law until recently. “Simpy stated,” Culbert’s letter reads, “the court improperly hired you to begin with. I wrestled a long time about whether or not I should ignore what I now know because you’ve been a great employee.” Beal, who never received a write-up or missed day of work in the past 2 years, had been featured in the Fremont newspaper in a stray headlined “Fremonter trying to make difference for young people.” It quotes Mitchell saying about Beal’s hiring circumstances. “Judge Culbert stuck his neck out to give Beal a. chance.” Beal’s felony record goes back to 1994, when he was convicted of theft, receiving stolen property and assault after getting the better of a fistfight with another man. Sentenced to 3 to 16 years, he

served 23 months, after which he decided to turn his life around. That effort included volunteering at the detention center, where he eventually was offered a paid position by the judge. That turnaround also included getting married and raising a family. He and his wife, Jenny, have a 6-year-old daughter, Brianah, by her first marriage, and another daughter, Jasannah, 10 months, together. Black leaders disagree on posftSept 11 stance By Linn Washington Jr

Is patriotism-unanswering supprat for the power-that-be? Or, is patriotism more perspective,. inclusive of supporting ideas but opposing individuals charged with abusing their duty to protect

those ideas?

This question of the complexion of patriotism is ripe for discussion in the black community as America pursues yet another war abroad, demanding unity at home from all citizens, including those still blocked from enjoying all benefits of American democracy Some black leaders support the shooting war in Afghanistan, while others oppose it For many, too many black leaders remain silent on this and other critical issues involving the so-called War on Terrorism that many in our community fear threatens the gains that our community fought so hard to secure. South Carolina activitist/attomey Kevin Alexander Gray recently wrote that it is “counterproductive to the civil rights, agenda and dangerous for black leadership” to support a war that decimates U. S. constitutional protections and international human rights

protections.

Last week, for example, two well-known black female social activists took different positions on the proper role of patriotism in these perilous times with both using different interpretations of the meaning of Dr. King’s Bream’remains unfulfilled. ‘We ask ourselves: “Should we or can we turn the other cheek, even when the violence against us was so horrendous? It leaves

no cheek to turn,” said Tucker, founder and president of the King Association. ‘We wholeheartedly support our leaders in response to these acts of destruction” Dr. King’s criticism of the Vietnam War and that war’s devestating impact on efforts to defeat the domestic enemies of racism and poverty helped hasten his assassination, may observers feel. Less than 600 miles west of where Tucker spoke in Center City Philadelphia last week, prominent 60s-era activist Angela Davis told an audience in Ohio that Bush administration efforts to rally support for its anti-terrorism campaign have made Americans afraid to-question authority as King once did. “Here we are decades (after King’s death) and people are still afraid to criticize the war in Afghanistan,” Davis said during a King commemmoration at Denison University. “The institutions of repression that targeted Dr. King is still very much in existence today,” Davis said, a former member of the Black Panther Party. Removing restrictions on FBI spying and subversion against domestic dissent groups is a part of Bush Adminsitration plans for its war on terrorism. Interestingly, Congress put these restrictions in place during the eaiyl 1970s in part because of illegal and often violent abuses by federal law enforcement agencies agaisnt domestic dissidents like Dr. King and the Black Panthers. Davis questioned the silence on such post-9/11 issues as racial profiling against ArabAmericans, particularly from black historically raped by this racist enforcement practice. “The government asked people who were used to racial profiling to assent to racial profiling of Middle Easterners,” Davis said. “Why didn’t we all stand up and say, “this isn’t right?" Typically, in this post-9/11 era, some blacks who have stood up placing legitimate questions on the table of public debate have been smacked down by ranking black leaders. Consider the case of Durham, N.C., NAACP Brandi President the Rev. Curtis Gatewood. Days

after 9/11, remarks by Gatewood questioning the propriety of bombing Afghanistan to bring freedom there, while backing away from needed efforts to continue dismantiling the ticking time bombs of domestic discrimination sparked sharp rebuke from national NAACP leader Kweisi Mfume. Gatewood issued a statement noting that those blacks sent to the front lines of war will return home and “be discriminated against by people whose businesses were headquartered in the World Trade Center.” Gatewood said blacks should listen to God and not the “nation’s arrogant calls for blind patriotism...” Gatewood’s statement said, ‘This is not the time to sacrifice our fathers, sons and brothers to a countyr that has not protected our rights.” Mfume quickly blasted Gatewood. This is nto a time to sit back and pontificate with pointed fingers about the fact that there are imperfections in our society” Mfume said. This is a time to find a way as Americans, without the hyphen, to work together to protect our way of life and the lives of innocent people.” This question about the complexion of patriotism in the blade community during times of foreign war is not new. The legendary black activist A Philip Randolph eloquently addressed this question during remarks in 1941 announcing his plans for a massive demonstration in Washington, DC, to protest the exdusion of black workers from jobs in America’s defense industry and segregation in the armed forces. •We believe in national unity which recognizes equal opportunity of black and white citizens to jobs in national defense and the armed forces, and in all other institutuions and endeavors in America,” Randolph said condemning Nazism, fascism and communism. “But, if American democracy will not defend its defenders.. of American democracy will not ensure equality of opportunity, freedom and justice to its dtizens, black and white, it is a hollow mockery and belies the principles for which it is supposed to stand.”