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PAGE 6A
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2018
Random Rants in Rhyme
Rules for Love and Life
If you would share a very great love
or make some grand achievement,
then you will need help from above
and there’s always risk involvement.
There is a price that you must pay
and certain rules you must follow
every step along the way,
or your reward may be hollow.
When you tell someone, “I love you,”
be sure they’re words you’ll stand by.
When saying, “I’m sorry,” be sure it's true
and look them straight in the eye.
Choose your battles. Don’t fight every one;
and when you do, fight fairly.
Don’t try to vanquish the other person.
A win is a win, if just barely.
Then, when you lose (and lose you will)
don’t let the lesson be lost.
There’s much you need to learn ... yes ... still:
and you ’ve already paid that cost.
Be willing to go the extra mile
without acting like a martyr
And if you do it with a smile,
that will make you look even smarter
When it first dawns that you’ve made a mistake,
try to correct it at once.
If cover-up is the path you take,
you ’ll probably look like a dunce.
Judge every person on his own merit
and not on his family.
It’s sometimes surprising what genes we inherit
from someone as dumb as a tree.
Never believe the gossip you hear
unless there is absolute proof.
Relationships based on doubt or fear
will usually blow through the roof.
In life and relationships, follow three R’s
to gain fullest satisfaction:
Respect for yourself; respect for others,
and responsibility for your actions.
© 2009, cbs
Dr. CB Skelton is a retired Winder physician and author of several books.
Remembering the king of
overnight talk radio
I’m not exactly sure when I first heard Art
Bell’s radio show.
It was sometime in the 1990s when I stum
bled upon Bell’s show which aired from 1-5
a.m. on the East Coast. Centering on all kinds
of mysterious and spooky subjects, I was
immediately hooked.
This was a radio
talk show unlike any
I had ever listened
to. The subjects
ranged from UFOs
to Bigfoot to ghosts
to strange happenings
and unsolved myster
ies.
Of course, the only
down part was the
time it aired. I often
tried to wake up
during the night to at
least hear what that
morning’s show subject was. Many times,
they were so intriguing I would lay awake in
my bed and listen for an hour, two hours or
longer.
“I know I am going to pay for this tomor
row,” I kept telling myself.
Somehow, I just couldn’t turn the radio off
in order to go to sleep. Bell’s “Coast to Coast
A.M.” show had gained another fan of the
insomniacs, overnight truck drivers and those
who were up at that hour for whatever reason.
It was on Bell’s show that I learned of John
Lear of the known Lear aviation family. Lear
was the one who introduced UFO buffs to
Bob Lazar and his fascinating stories of work
ing at Area 51 and how our government had
been for years back-engineering technology
from various vehicles from other worlds.
A few years later it was Lear who lent credi
bility because of his storied career as an airline
pilot, who was one of the first to cast doubts on
the official 9/11 story as told by the govern
ment. Lear said it was impossible for someone
to receive that small amount of training to fly a
major airliner into the Twin Towers.
Lear said even with his thousands upon
thousands of hours of flight time he doubted
he could have flown the planes into the build
ings at the rate of speed they were traveling.
Lear broke it down in more technical terms
I don’t understand since I have no aviation
training but it was certainly eye-opening to
hear his theories.
One of my favorite shows was Bell’s annual
“Ghost to Ghost A.M.” which he did each
Halloween. People would call in with ghost
stories, often personal things they had experi
enced. While some of the stories were a little
silly some were downright spooky, no doubt
made more so by the late hour of the show.
Eventually Bell stepped away from the
show for reasons which were as mysterious as
one of his broadcasts.
Reports indicated that Bell was receiving
death threats although he never actually said
what happened.
Later Bell would return to the show as a
weekend host but the itch was there for him
to return full-time. He would later launch his
own overnight show (in two versions) and
became a competitor of the show he created.
Bell, in typical conspiracy fashion, stepped
away from those shows as well after someone
allegedly came onto his private property and
threatened his family.
The death of the unique radio talk show
host in recent days caused his still loyal legion
of fans to remember his greatness. Many of
his shows are still available on YouTube and
it’s common for me to listen to them at night
as I drift away.
And while the original “Coast to Coast
A.M.” show continues to air, it simply hasn’t
been the same without Art Bell. He was truly
the first, an original and someone who made
it worth it to try and stay up well past my
bedtime.
Winder resident Chris Bridges is a former
editor of the Barrow News-Journal. He wel
comes feedback about this column at pchris-
bridges @gmail. com.
Lent Shaw lynching photo deserves honest eyes
Evan Lewis traveled to
Madison County to see
the place where his great
grandfather, Lent Shaw,
was lynched 82 years
ago this week.
The USA Today ran
a story about Lewis’s
visit in its April 4 issue.
It’s a lengthy
and well-writ-
ten story by
S h o n d 1 i n
Silversmith,
digital producer
for The Arizona
Republic. It was
done as part of
her research for
the Civil Rights
and Restorative
Justice Project.
The piece
includes a photo of
Shaw behind a “graphic
content” warning.
An online viewer can
slide the warning to the
left to reveal the hor
rible scene — a black
man with a rope around
his neck and a crowd of
white men posing for a
shot with the body, kind
of the way men might
pose with an animal
after a hunt.
I expect there are folks
in this county who could
identify a number of
the men in the pictures.
That’s so and so’s grand-
daddy.
Or, that’s my great
uncle John. You can
Google the story with
“Lent Shaw, Evan Lewis,
USA Today” and find
it, along with the photo,
which I don’t want to
run.
That picture needs to
be viewed by choice, not
by surprise.
Court records identi
fied an 18-year-old white
woman, Ola Lranklin,
who said Shaw assaulted
her.
The North Carolina
Hickory Record reported
in 1936 that Shaw was
lynched by a “mob of
40 men” and that “two
white girls reported he
attempted to attack them
after their motor car
broke down April 10.”
They said Shaw was “the
man who pursued them
with a knife and threw
one into a gully.
The assailant was
frightened away by their
screams.”
Lranklin lived
until April of
last year, dying
at 99, but fam
ily members
contacted for
The USA Today
story said she
never spoke of
the incident.
After the inci
dent, Lranklin
said Shaw
assaulted her. Shaw, 42
when he died, was con
fronted by multiple mob
scenes after the incident.
Newspaper accounts at
the time said Shaw was
in the Madison County
Jail in Danielsville and
a crowd wielding crow
bars and hammers tried
to break in to get him.
Aware of the mob,
Shaw said, “You know
I ain’t the guilty man.”
Madison County Sheriff
T. L. Henley tried to
break up the mob.
After he was unsuc
cessful, he called on
Judge Berry T. Mosley,
who stood in front of
the jail and told the
crowd to stop and let
the law take its course.
The National Guard was
called to escort Shaw out
of Danielsville.
It was a rough trip.
Shaw “allegedly
attacked officers who
were escorting him and
in response, the officers
shot him three times.”
Shaw shared his
account of the day of
the alleged assault with
The Atlanta Daily World
while at the hospital.
“I was on the floor in
front of the fire when I
heard someone holler. I
told my children to keep
quiet, so we could hear,”
he said. "When I heard
the noise, which sound
ed as though the voice
of a screaming person
...I got up and went to
the door. The scream
ing was a good half-mile
down the road from our
house.”
Shaw said he took his
son’s coat and went to
the porch, where he saw
some cars drive up.
“I got in with the folks
and went with them to
see if I could be of any
help,” he said. “At the
jail, the girl said I was
the man who choked
her.”
He was immediately
locked up.
After 17 days in
Atlanta, Shaw was
transported back to the
Madison County Jail and
was again confronted by
a mob.
Then, he was taken to
a small jail in Royston.
But the mob found out.
They went to the jail
around midnight April
28 and busted him out,
driving back to Colbert.
He was lynched eight
hours before he was sup
posed to stand trial.
The mob hanged him
from a tree and shot him
repeatedly.
Shaw’s wife, Georgia
Hill, said she and her 11
children, ages 15 months
to 20 years, were home
during the lynching,
huddled together in a
small room.
“There were so many
shots we couldn’t count
them,” Hill said. She
said she knew her hus
band was being carried
to his death by the shout
ing of passengers in the
passing cars.
No one was ever con
victed for the lynching.
Shaw’s family moved
to Chicago afterwards.
And the family said for
years that visiting the
old family home place
of Madison County,
Georgia was absolutely
out of the question.
But Evan Lewis made
the trip eight decades
later.
He said he’s thought
about the incident his
whole life. He said it has
been a source of pain
for his family for gener
ations.
Evans said he want
ed his mother, Shaw’s
granddaughter, to make
the trip with him, but she
says she doesn’t think
she can do it.
It would be too rough,
too emotional. He saw
the trip as a type of nec
essary spiritual journey,
a way to break free of
old pain.
“I don't want to live
with that fear in myself
or tag that down to
future generations, so I
feel that it’s important
for a cycle like that to be
broken,” he said.
Evans visited the creek
where the lynching hap
pened.
But he said he also
wanted to think of the
lives his relatives had in
Colbert that held happy
moments, not just the
trauma.
“That is part of the
gift in this experience, is
to be able to reach into
the past and get past the
horror and find some of
the tenderness and love
that is also a part of that
space that my family
has been sort of cut off
(from),” said Evans.
Of course, such issues
trigger intense emotions,
both from those outraged
by such an act and those
angered by the mention
of something ugly from
1936. What’s the rele
vance now? Why bring
up ugly history?
Looking at such things
is painful. And the argu
ment of letting things
stay silent is a powerful
one.
I don’t discount the
appeal.
But if honest history
doesn’t matter, then an
honest today doesn’t
matter either, at least not
for long, because today
is tomorrow’s history.
I don’t have answers
for our long, troubled
racial history. There’s
so much emotion, even
today, so many opinions
and personal histories.
But I do think a lot about
truth.
And I think honesty
is an essential ingredi
ent in all aspects of life.
Dismissal and silence
aren’t adequate substi
tutes for honest talk.
When I look at that old
photo, I doubt there’s
anyone who participated
in that lynching who is
still alive today. I can’t
see the murder being a
court matter now. But I
do think there’s one sort
of justice that should
exist.
The only person
named in that photo is
the dead man.
But I see at least 17
people and 14 faces
that could conceivably
be identified. (There is
actually another photo
from a different angle
that shows other faces.)
These men posed that
day as if it was an occa
sion worth remember
ing, as if it was truly a
photo opportunity, like
a ribbon-cutting cere
mony, not a moment of
moral shame.
I can’t imagine seeing
that picture back then
and then going to com
missioners’ meetings
and seeing these same
men with such a photo
graph in my head.
But that’s what many
white people had to con
front, too, that social
ease with whispered
atrocity, that political
correctness of the time.
It had to weigh heavily
on many who felt the
injustice of it but who
felt overwhelmed, too.
I think it’s only fair
in photos like these that
the captions include the
names of everyone who
can be identified.
These people were
eager to have their faces
associated with the kill
ing.
As a historical record,
their names should be
with Lent Shaw’s in that
moment. This should
be true of any killing
that is used as a photo
op. If it’s flipped, and
a group of black men
posed with a white farm
er they killed, then all of
those black men should
be held to account and at
least identified if they’re
deceased.
There should be no
whitewashing of associ
ation.
That should be a mat
ter of moral personal
responsibility that tran
scends time and culture
— that simply speaks
to humanity, not race. I
know there are people
in this county who know
the names of some of
those men.
They're not all named
“John Doe.”
They have real names.
Some surely had things
about them that are com
pletely at odds with such
a horrible act.
I have doubts that any
one is willing to name
them. But the family
deserves to know those
names. If it was your
family, you would, too.
Any family should have
that, even when it comes
as far too little, far too
late.
That lynching photo,
as terrible as it is,
deserves the honest eyes
of this county.
Zach Mitcham is edi
tor of The Madison
County Journal, a sister
newspaper of the Barrow
News-Journal. He can
be reached at zach@
mainstreetnews. com.