Cd'A Press, you're bigots on parade

Calling out Craig Northrup for this “article” of July 28, 2019, Racism on Parade? As a staff writer, Craig represents the Cd’A Press and fell down (hard) from his normally capable attempts at journalism. I have seen opinion pieces with more accuracy and truth, yet his made the front page. I would be laughing right now at how poorly the article was written if it didn’t deal with such serious matters.

Earlier this year, the agenda-driven CNN analyst Areva Martin was dressing down Fox Nation host David Webb. During a broadcast exchange Areva accused David of benefiting from white privilege. Then Areva had to deal with the embarrassment of learning that David Webb is black. It appears Craig Northrup was not paying attention, because he did something just as dumb.

Craig, get the facts right, and then fix the libel and defamation that you put on the front page. You are lucky that the guy you defamed probably doesn’t care enough about your slander to send an attorney your way. You hosted a bonfire where you roasted your credibility and that of the Cd’A Press. Your readership is going to suffer because of it, unless you do the right thing and try to repair the damage you tried to inflict on another person’s character.

If you hadn’t been so intent on being the local PC hero, you might have noticed in the pictures that the drivers of the Dixie Services vehicles are darker than Russell Wilson of the Seahawks. Yep, all but one member of the family that you interviewed is darker than Ciara or Halle Berry or whoever else you can relate to that brings your fuzzy picture into focus. I know the Valentine family, went to school with the oldest son in the 1980s and have used their landscaping services. Given their ethnicity, who are they being racist toward? Your bullying is as bad as or worse than any one of the Valentine family members experienced in school. You had an opportunity to tell the story of a family that has done business around here for decades, but chose instead to spread lies to fit a narrative.

And then you had to give time of day to other careless (bigoted) people, who throw hissy fits when not everyone agrees with their narrative of PC. For example, people willing to throw stones at another person right after admitting to never having met the person in question. Like the Matt Petersen bigot. I can say that right? Matt Petersen is a bigot that tried to ruin another man’s name and business without even meeting him or giving him the time of day, specifically using terms like “racist” and other very, very derogatory words for company: That’s classic, standard cover a racist will use to have their dog whistles without having to own up to the fact that he obviously doesn’t think blacks are equals. Maybe simply calling Mr. Petersen a bigot is being too friendly.

What’s Matt Petersen going to do to fix the damage he may have caused to the Valentine family and the viewership he disedified? Is he going to apologize to the person he defamed? Is the apology going to extend to the family of color that he defamed? Is he going to be human enough to approach Mrs. Valentine and say, “I am sorry I called your husband a racist. I should have checked the color of your skin and your children’s skin before I shared my rash judgment with the world”?

I would expect a bigot like Mr. Petersen to spout off with less than half the facts whenever he disagrees with a symbol that he can’t understand. He acts like all confederates were white, whereas the reality is that not all blacks are down on the Dixie flag. It’s people like Petersen that are racist, and they seem to be pushing for a race war. Walter Williams (a black man, in case the color of an intelligent person matters to you) is an author and John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University. On July 31, 2017, he penned an article called Removal of Confederate-era monuments an Orwellian disregard for U.S. history. Mr. Northrup and Mr. Petersen should pull their respective heads out of the dark place of hate and read it (and maybe a couple other books by Walter Williams). If you think that’s harsh of me to say, then maybe you should re-read what you said about the Valentine family. Do you seriously want to compare black people voicing their opinions to the arrival of the Aryan Nations?

I would expect the Cd’A Chamber of Commerce proceed with gut-check reactions and placate the bullies, just like they did. The chamber has the united spine of a wet noodle, but I guess that is considered a step up from the norm in the realm of politics. Let’s just say that political correctness should not be their compass of morality. This is still the USA for crying out loud. Will they give back the Valentines’ reputation the way they found it? Will they even try?

Judge not lest you be judged; for as you judge others, so shall you be judged. The Press, Mr. Northrup, Mr. Petersen, Mr. Wilson, Mr. Stewart, and the Cd’A Chamber have judged rashly with much, much less than all the facts. Justice demands that they fix their mistakes. Their credibility and reputations are also in the balance.

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C.J. Strain is a licensed biochemical engineer who speaks at national and international conferences for environmental remediation. https://www.linkedin.com/in/straincj/.