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MY TRUTH
By Cheryl Smith Publisher
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 4, 2021 VOLUME X
Police to pursue racist assault on Garland NAACP
RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY Note to self: Despite your disdain for “spam calls,” take a chance, because it just might be the call you need. Last Friday evening I was treating myself to an early evening at home when my phone registered a “spam call.” Much to my surprise, there wasn’t a recording on the other end. Instead it was award-winning journalist Jobin Panicker, from the local ABC affiliate, WFAA-TV. He informed me that Plano police confirmed that there was a DNA match connecting 48-year-old Jeffery Wheat to a sexual assault case just North of Dallas.
Pookie
It appears that Mr. Wheat could be the person responsible for several sexual assaults against women of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, of which I am a member. Since the story first appeared on the pages of I Messenger Media publications about 10 years ago we have not missed one week; that’s right, every issue has carried the sketch of the perpetrator, asking for any information that would lead to an arrest. Actually I gave him a name, “Pookie.” Why? Well, I took the rapes personally and I needed to personalize the rapist so that I’d never forget him. So I chose the name “Pookie” because in my communities growing up, there was always a Pookie who was always getting into trouble. I talked about Pookie on Soul 73 KKDA, on the award-winning show I hosted, “Reporters Roundtable with Cheryl Smith,” until the station was sold in 2012; and anywhere I went I tried to get folks to talk about and advocate for the women who were assaulted. Now I wasn’t speaking out because they were my sorority sisters, because I believe and my record shows that this wasn’t the first time that I have been a voice for the voiceless. Which brings me to my truth. During the phone call and prior to going live on ZOOM with Mr. Panicker, he asked me how I was feeling. I was speechless as a number of emotions consumed me. You see, I felt for those women because I felt as though we, collectively; let them down. I thought about the many times I have heard Black people talking about, “if they were white!” “Well, guess what, they weren’t. And I felt strongly that the case and public response See MY TRUTH, page 2
By Ashley M. Moss Staff writer
A man who left a voicemail message on a business phone line of a local NAACP branch that referred to Dr. Martin Luther King by a racial epithet may be prosecuted, Garland police said Friday afternoon. “Police referred the case to the Dallas County District Attorney’s office for consideration,” said Garland Police Lt. Pedro Barineau, the agency’s public information officer. “We are pursuing the charge of harassment and the case is being referred to the Dallas County grand jury,” Lt. Barineau wrote in an exclusive email to Texas Metro News Friday afternoon. Police declined to name the suspect. Meanwhile, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said he was familiar with the case after reading about it in a local newspaper. However, he said late Friday that he was
out of his office, away from his computer and could not confirm whether his staff had received the complaint. “If it was referred to my office, I don’t know about it,” he said during a brief telephone interview from his home. “I just can’t help you right now.” Calls and an email sent to Dallas County District Attorney Public Information Officer Kimberlee Leach were not returned late Friday. The escalation of the case came three days after Garland NAACP branch leaders complained to police that they had received an eight-second recorded message on the branch’s telephone line that they considered hateful and intimidating. In the recorded message, which branch leaders provided a copy of to Texas Metro News, the caller said, in part, “MLK is a good (N-word), but that’s because he’s a dead (N-word).” The Garland NAACP uses a telephone answering service which sends notification alerts
with voice recordings attached after a caller has left a message. The service identifies the caller by the name in which a phone line is listed and by the caller’s telephone number. Friday, Gwendolyn Daniels, the NAACP member who received the message in her branch voicemail box, said she was pleased at detectives’ work and their decision. “We appreciate that the Garland police took the time to investigate it,” Ms. Daniels said. “The detective assigned to our case said that the accused admitted right up front that he did it and that he still felt the same way.” NAACP Leaders said the incident would not change the branch’s civil rights work, their programming or deter their mission. “We are not going to change the way we handle things,” said Annie Dickson, president of the Garland NAACP. “We’re just going to continue to serve the See NAACP page 2
DeSoto and Glenn Heights Elections Proctor, Bruton win seats By Cheryl Smith
Economic accountability, a transparent government, the COVID-19 pandemic and unemployment were issues that DeSoto’s new mayor talked about on the campaign trail and some say the message resonated with voters as former Mayor ProTem Rachel Proctor handily defeated Mayor Kenzie Moore with 60.67 percent of the vote to fill the unexpired term of DeSoto Mayor Curtistene Smith McCowan, who died in late 2020. Throughout the campaign, she stressed taking the city back to the basics, focusing
Mayor -elect Rachel L. Proctor
on the ABCs of her vision: “A for accountability; B for bringing us back together; and C for communication.” “We have to get on the same page with the school district to serve the students, communicate, connect and build that bridge with the school district,” she
explained, adding that the Council needed to “restablish regular meetings with our school board, looking at a joint strategic plan.” In a candidate’s forum sponsored by the Southwest Dallas County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, the 2015 DeSoto High School Alumni Hall of Fame inductee from the Class of 1999 said it was important also, to look at DeSoto’s response to the pandemic and what that response needed to be in the future. “Stricter accountability measures are needed,” she said. “It was made more See PROCTOR page 3
Insurrection at the Capitol The Gray Area By Ed Gray America is in a state of an internal political war that has never been seen since the Civil War. The failed coup by the supporters of President Donald Trump exposed America. America can no longer be holier than thou and say that our elected norms are sacred. We can no longer brag about a peaceful transition of power. The demon in chief, also known as Donald Trump, encouraged his minions of MAGA supporters to violently attempt to subvert American democracy. As these domestic terrorists broke into the citadel of freedom, other
seditionist began to tear it down from within., Trump supporters such as Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) waved high the banner of sedition , to not certify the election of the President-Elect Joe Biden. January 06, 2021 will live as a day in infamy. It was America’s electoral Perl Harbor. A sneak attack upon democracy that was committed by legions of Americans, enemies from within, supported by White Supremacy. These terrorists scaled the walls of Freedom with the intent of Kidnapping, Killing, and Klanning the electoral college certification. If not for the quick thinking of a Capitol Hill Policeman, Eugene Goodman, then it was quite possible that many of our elected officials would have been killed or hurt. The ringleader of this Insurrection was the President of the Unit-
ed States, and for this high crime and misdemeanor he should be impeached and barred from running for the Presidency. This pardoned the word, trumps anything that any President has done before him. Instigating a coup to remain in power. This type of behavior is what happen in banana republics. Indeed, we must have been in a banana republic on that day in January, because Trump was bananas. We as Americans were lucky, because the insurrectionists were not as organized to pull it off. They probably did not think they could get as far as they did. We must not let this failure be a platform for others to build upon. We must impeach Donald Trump, Jail the Insurrectionists, and Remove from office all members of the Sedition Caucus of elected representatives that assisted. I am Ed Gray, and this is Straight Talk.
I Was Just Thinking... By Norma Adams-Wade
National Youth Poet Laureate burst forth as “a supernova being born.“
Smash-hit poet Amanda Gorman at the Biden-Harris inauguration. Credit: Facebook
Add me to the swell of folk heaping accolades on Amanda Gorman, the 22-year-old who is the youngest poet in U. S. history to present her poem at a presidential inauguration – in this case, the January 20, 2021 swearing-in of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. By the time you read this writing -- if there is any fairness in life -Ms. Gorman’s name will be well secured as the sensational, smash-hit star she has become. CNN media commentator Van Jones described her as “a supernova being born.” Gorman’s celebrity burst forth after she read her inauguration poem, “The Hill We Climb,” on the steps of the U. S. Capitol. Her eager smile further accented her brilliant yellow coat she wore and brightred, silk cloth that adorned her neatly-braided hair. African-American’s can be proud to claim her among our ranks, and as one who identifies herself as a voice for the African diaspora, issues of oppression, marginalization and race. She was born and raised in Los Angeles by her mother Joan Wicks, a teacher, and she has two siblings including a twin sister. She studied sociology at Harvard College, the undergraduate program of Harvard University. While at Harvard College in 2017, she was picked as America’s first National Youth Poet Laureate in a program co-sponsored by the Library of Congress. It is unfortunate if you did not hear her read in person her deep-thinking and inspiring poem about our American experience – good, bad, ugly, and hopeful. Her presentation and pose were magnetic. The words on paper do not do justice to her powerful, spoken words. There is no doubt that Maya Angelou, who read her own poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration, would have beamed with pride as most of the nation is now doing. Here are excerpts from Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb”: When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry, a sea we must wade. We’ve braved the belly of the beast. We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace. In the norms and notions of See THINKING, page 2