A PLEA TO PROTECT FUTURE SONYA MASSEYS

My message to the upcoming National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago is basic: Report and tell us the truth on the police slaying of a Black woman in her Illinois home. 

Yes, send a delegation to Springfield to investigate how the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department could hire Sean Grayson in the first place. I ask because I saw his skull tattoos on his arm in the booking photo after his first-degree murder indictment. I ask because I am curious why the state’s Fraternal Order of Police is rallying for Grayson’s reinstatement, calling his firing unjustified.

How many other Deputy Graysons are on the sheriff’s payroll? I cannot trust the emaciated local newspaper to explore this and a range of other questions simmering like the boiling pot of water that triggered Grayson to shoot Sonya Massey below her left eye. In his callous inhumanity, Grayson didn’t even want to try to save her life as she succumbed on her kitchen floor. “Nah, she’s done,” his partner’s bodycam footage reveals. 

Why wasn’t Grayson’s bodycam activated?

Indeed, many questions are unanswered— and likely won’t be unless some truth is shined on this official darkness.

For my part, today I submitted my own Freedom of Information request to the sheriff’s department. At the end of the online form, they asked for a photo ID. 

I declined.

Still, I urge the NABJ, as they celebrate their existence and push the next generation, to send a team from Chicago to Springfield. Show journalistic integrity, strength and excellence in an era of distrust, division and detraction. 

Sonya Massey was unjustifiably killed. Let’s not be desensitized when any police officer exceeds their authority to protect and serve.

My freedom of information request asked for:

1– The initial police report of the encounter with deceased and Grayson. (Grayson’s family was first told that she had been killed by an intruder.)

2– For Grayson, any prior disciplinary or commendation reports.

3– Post-incident statements from sheriff’s office.

4– Racial composition of sworn sheriff deputies and other officials.

5– Demographic information on civilian and uniformed officers.

6– New training for officers, and other efforts for community engagement, sensitivity training,

Certainly, more probing questions loom. Like how could someone with two DUIs, with a bad conduct Army discharge, a man who worked for six law enforcement agencies in just four years, a deputy known for disobedience to superior officers — how could this be so egregiously missed and Grayson still hired?

The sad truth is we all could wind up as Sonya Massey. One answer is to have journalistic watchdogs who can help get to the root of the problem — before there is another corpse in the kitchen.

Democrats Gone Wild

The DNC is our democracy’s new WMD — Weapon of Mass Destruction.

For months, maybe years, they have disgracefully promoted Joe Biden, with full knowledge that he needed to be shielded because of his declining health, both mental and physical. He was protected by his inner circle, with few public appearances, no press conferences. All the while with him as the lone viable candidate on the Democratic primary slough. 

The party platform was weak as well. “Let’s trumpet fighting against Hitler 2.0 and for women’s reproductive rights. And, just as an added carrot, we have the courts to come after Trump, so that after he’s convicted, the GOP will be in utter disarray with their champion disgraced and hopefully behind bars.”

That didn’t work out so well, did it, DNC? Just like America’s failed search for Saddam Hussein weapons of mass destruction, which was the excuse to launch a full-scale war in Iraq, the DNC — for years— has been on its own fools’ errand. They have failed to develop a bench, abandoned any mass-appealing platform planks and proved themselves as enablers rather than coal mine canaries.

Now, we are faced with all kinds of slings and arrows, directed at our attempt to save this democracy from MAGA. I can’t wait to learn what the DNC‘s strategy is now. Whatever it is, I probably won’t be believing that it will be a sound one. Like our disastrous, multi-trillion-dollar Iraq War, which claimed thousands of GIs, the DNC has us in perilous, uncharted territory. 

Bye, Felicia (er, Joe)

Bye, Felicia (er, Joe)

What our democracy now must try to salvage is some kind of Plan ‘B’

By Dwight Cunningham

There hasn’t been this much carnage in Georgia since Gen. William “Tecumseh” Sherman burned Atlanta down almost 160 years ago.

Of course, I'm referring to President Joe Biden’s conflagration of a presidential debate performance against the known insurrectionist, serial liar, rapist and felonious business chief Donald Trump. One could add COVID-19 denier and disinformation guru to Trump’s infamous resume. His malfeasance undeniably took thousands more American lives.

All of that was low-hanging fruit for Joe Biden to just pluck with able, confident pricks. Done with any aplomb, he could have ground Trump into political dust.

Instead, Biden nosedived, crashing quickly into a firestorm where even the embers of his stellar presidency are no longer recognizable.

What our democracy now must try to salvage is some kind of Plan “B” — a hard handoff that could easily be fumbled with just mere weeks before Election Day.

At least Sherman knew his mission: To put insurrectionist Confederate rebels out of commission for good. History says Sherman’s men had begun firing Atlanta on Nov. 12, 1864, targeting places of military importance, such as factories and railroad depots. A subordinate general had issued a $500 reward to anyone who caught Union soldiers committing arson at private residences.

Nonetheless, wayward troops did torch plenty of homes and shops. Entire neighborhoods were burned to the ground, and with the destruction of Atlanta, the Union was saved.

Today, in a last-ditch attempt to save our precious union, now is the time for Biden and his Democratic handlers to reckon with the obviously hard truth: He just isn’t up for four more tough years.

Sadly, only Biden can shift his aged focus to what much of America witnessed with dread in the first — and maybe the only — presidential debate of 2024.

There is no denying that the president looked frail, weak and lacked mental acuity. He stumbled over set pieces on many subjects over which he has a clear policy edge.

Doubtless, the pundits and pollsters will hang onto flubs that point to an 81-year-old president. But who among us fortunate to live that long want to work? And, worse, with the toughest job on the planet?

Trump’s nefariousness is a smoking gun that is willing to load up with a new brand of facism run amuck in America. Again, low-hanging fruit.

But with his debate debacle, Biden may not even survive a second term, given that he would be 86 at its end. Not to mention the rigor to put in 16-hour workdays (or more) and few weekends off while overseeing an ever-complicated world stage.

We Americans deserve better. The world deserves better. Heck, this universe deserves better with no Donald Trump possessing the nuclear codes to oblivion.

Here we are, contending with the ever-faithful survivalist Trump uttering a plethora of powerful falsehoods and lies that likely will crush coming eons, given the opportunity.

We, therefore, will get no shot at good outcomes for our national security, veterans care, Social Security protection, immigration reform, women’s reproductive rights — none of that will matter in a few more weeks if Biden (and Vice President Kamala Harris, for that matter) fail to put egos aside and deal with Biden’s declining health issues.

At least Gen. Sherman knew when he embarked on his Atlanta journey to put the South out of business that he had the blessing of the Lincoln White House to do whatever was necessary to win.

Apparently not so with the Biden White House, who are blessing themselves with a blind spot for the ages. It is a fearful reality that their guy may be riding a pale horse.

It is time to take the reins away from Joe.

These days, when an older person is no longer able to drive without endangering themselves and others, the kids have hard talks before taking away the keys. With love, they convey the painful message that untold lives depend on the sickly person’s self-sacrifice.

Joe Biden may not be at that point yet. And there may not be too many among his inner circle — including his consoling wife and sister — who will have the moral courage to save him from an election defeat and much American chaos to follow.

As an adolescent, my first typing book had an exercise: “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.” I must’ve typed that hundreds of times in those early years, without truly understanding its meaning.

Today, I do. More than ever, I know that now is the time for all good men — and women — to come to the aid of their country. Party be damned.

(Dwight Cunningham is a retired journalist, college educator, emergency manager and U.S. Air Force veteran. He resides in South Carolina.)