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An Open Letter to Mike / Subject: John Boyle, Asheville Citizen Times- Reporter
Dear Mike,
Several years back before my Dear Mother passed away, John Boyles, a reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, would write in an article: Why don’t HK Edgerton give that Rebel Flag a rest. If he loves it so much, he should bring his mother and daughter over to my garage and I can have my way with them all day and he can be my slave. This diatribe provoked a response from myself and my Southern family as we held a vigil at the doors of the newspaper under the watchful eyes of the Asheville Police Department during the time we were there.
Mr. Boyle recently wrote in an article about my request to the City Council to not seat Mr. Cecil Bothwell because of the North Carolina Constitution forbidding him to do so because of his proclamation against the belief of the Almighty God, that you know that you are doing something right if HK Edgerton makes a stand against it. Should this be the case then I suppose the winos, drug dealers, prostitutes, school truants, and those who openly gambled, defecated and left trash that covered the entire Eagle/Market streets in the Historic Black Business District where every day with a broom and signs picketing their actions, I personally with the help of the Asheville Police Department and the City Street Department cleaned up and turned it into a place where not only has White Business moved into, but now their children play in the streets and back alleys of with no fear, should come back, and I should give back the Citizen Awards that I received from both the Asheville City Police and City Street Departments for turning one of, if not the dirtiest and most dangerous areas in the city, into one of the safest and cleanest.
And maybe the Minority Business Program should scrape its minority Business Program policy that I sat on a committee to help re-write, after having to picket the city to come to terms to do after bringing to their attention to all the business fronts and inadequacies of their program.
And maybe then the Buncombe County Drug Commission should take back the citations given to me as their Program Planning and Implementation Chair that I earned for combating drug abuse in the city and county.
And maybe the City of Asheville should once again re-instate its Partnership One program that they formed with the Affordable Housing Coalition and Pisgah Legal Services that I fought for forming a partnership that was taking citizens homes under the auspices of condemnation and taxation procedures and passing the deeds among themselves, utilizing carrot programs and other grants to repair the houses, and profiting for sales of. Call all that good if you want to. I would rather look at the business at hand and not drag out all the dirty laundry of those who found old Edgerton on their case, and I know that they too would feel a lot better if Boyle had not made his insane statement.
The bottom line for me is that this city is not above the law, and until our Constitution has been amended to allow Mr. Bothwell to sit upon this Council as an atheist, he should not serve. And all the attempts to paint me as some citizen lunatic will never wash well with those who are familiar with my deeds, and Mr. Boyles can write what he pleases. However, he can thank God that he worked for one of the greatest men I have ever known (the Honorable Virgil Smith) when he wrote what he did about my mother, or I would still be standing outside the Citizen-Times demanding he be fired.
