| Over the past several days, the story of Shirley | | | | began with the Spooner's as she moved past her |
| Sherrod, formally the Georgia State Director of | | | | initial reaction to come to their aid. In fact, the |
| Rural Development, has monopolized the news, | | | | Spooner's appeared on national TV to refute the |
| eclipsing the Gulf oil spill, the long-awaited passing | | | | claims made against Sherrod and thanked her for |
| of HR 4213 extending emergency unemployment | | | | saving their farm, now 25 years ago. |
| benefits, and the recent heating up of the conflict | | | | As the truth of Sherrod's speech and the entire |
| in Afghanistan. | | | | 40 minute speech was made available to the |
| Sherrod deserves an apology says the American | | | | public, Vilsack extended Sherrod a public apology. |
| people, as a 2-minute clip vilifying her was found | | | | She was also offered a position with the Civil |
| to be taken out of context, pulled from a | | | | Rights office of outreach, to which Sherrod states |
| 40-minute speech she presented at a NAACP | | | | she needs time to consider. Vilsack's apology has |
| banquet earlier this year. At the onset it appeared | | | | allowed the Obama administration to distance |
| that Sherrod was indeed a racist. Fox News, the | | | | themselves from the heated debate. Yet, |
| White House, NAACP, and Sherrod's boss, | | | | Sherrod is on record as having said on the day of |
| Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, all | | | | her dismissal, Cheryl Cook, USDA Deputy Under |
| reportedly weighed in with their opinion and she | | | | Secretary, called Sherrod three times as Sharrod |
| was summarily fired from her position. | | | | was enroute to her office, requesting her |
| During the 2-minute clip, Sherrod discussed her | | | | whereabouts. During the third and final call, Cook |
| handling of a family, the Spooner's, who had come | | | | stated the controversy over Sherrod's speech |
| to her in an attempt to save their farm; | | | | was to be highlighted on Glenn Beck that evening, |
| "What he didn't know while he was taking all that | | | | and why the White House was requesting her |
| time trying to show me he was superior to me | | | | resignation. Sherrod complied, pulling to the side of |
| was, I was trying to decide just how much help I | | | | the road to resign her position over her cell phone. |
| was going to give him. I was struggling with the | | | | Vilsack, the NAACP and the White House are not |
| fact that so many black people had lost their | | | | the only ones in the hot seat: It appears that Fox |
| farmland, and here I was faced with having to | | | | News has received a one-two punch by CNN for |
| help a white person save their land. | | | | prematurely attacking Sherrod without practicing |
| So I didn't give him the full force of what I could | | | | due diligence by verifying the story. |
| do. I did enough, so that when he...I assumed the | | | | So who is the guilty party? Is it the White House, |
| Department of Agriculture had sent him to me, | | | | the NAACP, the media, a premature, knee-jerk |
| either that or the Georgia Department of | | | | reaction by Vilsack, or all the above? We may |
| Agriculture, and he needed to go back and report | | | | never know. This writer suspects the intense, |
| that I did try to help him." | | | | over-the-top reaction to Sherrod's speech before |
| However, listening to the full context of her | | | | an honest investigation of the facts, no matter |
| 40-minute speech, one finds a much different | | | | the perpetrator, is the direct result of the wound |
| message--one in which Sherrod discusses with her | | | | of racism continually being ripped open by the |
| audience how she was able to move past her | | | | press, thus stirring the pot of racial unrest. |
| predigest, even though her fathers murder that | | | | If anything positive can be culled from this |
| occurred when she was growing up was found to | | | | debacle, it is that it has shown a light of reason on |
| be racially motivated. The crux of Sherrod's | | | | the issue. Many on the left, the right, and those |
| speech to the NAACP that day was to encourage | | | | in-between have had an opportunity to examine |
| others to move past racism and instead seek | | | | the issue and to learn from it and consider |
| compassion for the poor, no matter their color. | | | | ourselves lucky to have been introduced to a |
| Her journey, Sherrod shared with her audience, | | | | woman of Shirley Sherrod's character. |