I hold you in the highest esteem
Thank you and your family for all you have done and given to us to build a new century where our people still have land. Thank you and your family and Rose Sanders and the team of supporters who battled for years to get a fair hearing on the unfair treatment of Black farmers by the Agricultural Department. Congratulations on your achievement.
I am looking at you now and just want you to know how important you are and how important it is that we have a chance to see how hard it is to stay the course and that often you have to move forward through enemies and those who come as supporters…
Know that we know the Tea Party attack was wrong, Fox News airing the attack without checking it was wrong…
The request for your resignation without investigation was wrong…
The White House supporting USDA without investigation was wrong…
The NAACP critiquing you without reviewing your message to them was wrong…
The outcry and journalism revealing the truth was right and this nation needs this lesson today of how much we need good serious journalists…
The NAACP acknowledgement of their failure and breakdown and apology was right and appropriate.
I saw you make sure you spoke to that and that you appreciated the apology.
Thank you Shirley for your life and work and know that this day, I am so proud to be a child of Southwest Georgia and I do know that without your brilliant leadership,the support of your family and community people in sustaining multi-decade efforts there would be much less of Southwest Georgia that we could call home.
—Bernice Johnson Reagon
’a child of Southwest Georgia
Update, 7/24/10
Shirley:
I heard you ask for a conversation with the president. I now know that he did reach you on the phone and apologize for the horrific experience you have been through these past days. I do hope he gets to Southwest Georgia. I draw strength from being among the uncountable ones who have formed a living circle to surround and support you as you move through this testing ground. We are grateful to find you standing and taking some time to consider how best to move to continue the incredible transformative work in our world. Know that we are proud of the care you are taking not to be rushed as you look ahead. I love seeing your face and hearing your soft voice before me again and again and each time with calm and dignity, a deep grace and beauty, and quiet fierceness. I am here… standing– holding– my eyes shining–sending forth toward you, reflections of the light your journeying this week has cast over my life…
