Not a lot of us, it appears.
If there is, as former County Commissioner Melvin “Skip” Alston says, a “silent majority” in the black community that supports, as he does, Trudy Wade’s bill that drastically reshapes the Greensboro City Council, it remained silent at Sunday’s local NAACP meeting.
...it was abundantly clear that the people who had packed the sanctuary of Union Memorial United Methodist Church were not buying what Alston was selling.
He is a paper tiger whose growl is worse than his bite. And whose power and influence in the black community is slowly fading into irrelevance.
Good riddance.
...Most who attended were there because of their concern over Wade’s bill (Shipman made several references to the size of the crowd, which she said was unusual for a local NAACP meeting).
...Alston, who routinely would try to intimidate the opposition in the past with threats and personal attacks, isn’t as effective at that today.
...In two consecutive public meetings, Alston has been challenged and repudiated for his defense of, and alliance with, Wade. It first happened last week at a meeting of local ministers where Wade’s bill was described as “fool’s gold” (a term first used to describe it in a column by Carolina Peacemaker Editor Afrique Kilimanjaro). “Who in here believes that Republicans are creating districts so we can have a greater vote?” said the Rev. Cardes Brown, pastor of New Light Baptist Church.
...It is no surprise that Alston will form an alliance with anyone, anytime, if it gets him what he wants. And his worst, to date, is hardly his pairing with Wade. It was his partnership with Republican Steve Arnold and former County Manager Brenda Jones Fox.
Their reign of terror is almost legendary for its wholesale firings, rifts with other local governments, lack of transparency and accountability, ruthless deal-cutting and quests for personal gain.
...As for Alston’s reference to a "silent majority," it seems somehow fitting that he would invoke the words of Richard Nixon."
http://www.news-record.com/blogs/thinking_out_loud/mr-alston-you-are-the-last-person-to-be-talking/article_71a8b5b8-cc01-11e4-bfc9-23f11365c2a5.html
