Charlie Meadows, lifetime member of the John Birch Society and chair of the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee, was not prepared for the flurry of negative media attention he got last week when his newsletter was leaked to a local new stations, he explained to his readership on December 9th.
“While I expected our enemies and those in the intellectually dishonest community as well as those who suffer from invincible ignorance to consider me to be a racist, I honestly didn’t expect a small part of the content of my e-mail to end up on a local TV news report as well as generate a protest at our meeting this past Wednesday.”
Although Meadows’ newsletter is publicly available via Google groups, Meadows believes that there was some outside interference drumming up the charges of racism. It’s not because his words were ignorant or inflammatory, he told his readers this week…It’s because he has enemies who lack the intellectual “honesty” required to understand his sincere “advice” to “black people”:
I suspect a fellow I believe dislikes me and OCPAC very much, Al Gerhart, sent my e-mail to KFOR News 4 here in the OKC area and the issue was assigned to Sarah Stewart to make a story. One of our friends sent me a link to the news story and yes it was one sided. However, that is not because Sarah Stewart didn’t try to contact me for the other side of the story. To be fair, she called me twice and sent me 2 e-mails. Since we were out of the country with everything turned off at my end, I had no idea this tempest in a teapot was stirring back home until driving back from Houston on Sunday afternoon.
I had a friend of OCPAC send me Al’s newsletter where, evidently he slammed me and perhaps OCPAC? I didn’t bother to read it as I believe Al is delusional with much of what I saw in his writings, before I asked to be removed from his list a year or so ago, was a poor reflection of reality. By suggesting my e-mail was racist suggest Al lacks the intellectual fire power to read and understand an honest discussion of a touchy issue.
Meadows was quick to finger-point and lay blame on the NAACP, as well. “Also on the report was the local leader of the NAACP who used the words racist and bigot to describe me or OCPAC or both? While I have never met the fellow, I am not too surprised as I did state there is no longer a need for the NAACP to exist since the Civil Rights Act was passed back in the 1960s. Also featured on the news story was the outraged Ron Marlett, I believe he was a Republican opponent against State Representative Sally Kern in either 2004 or 2006. I don’t remember what I wrote about Ron at that time, I imagine he does, but I obviously supported Representative Kern.”
Meadows seemed dead set on blaming others for the outrage at his words, accusing them of not liking him and explaining their common beliefs as proof that his Republican and conservative allies really don’t disapprove of his words — they just have some beef with him. He believes that disapproval of his assertions about black people is insincere — they don’t dislike the message, but the messenger.
So, to help the black people of the modern world understand that his advice is sincere and not racist at all, Meadows wants us to know he will not apologize:
“Just so everyone will know, I stand by my words and there will be no apology from me as I don’t believe one is justified. I probably had more response from our readers on last week’s e-mail than anything I have written in quite some time. Overwhelmingly, the responses were to encourage me and thank me for having the courage to speak up and speak the truth.At this point I want to continue with a few more things I didn’t get to last week. One more time, not all black folks in America hate cops and not all black folks are losers. My commentary is directed toward the haters and losers and what they might do to overcome their hate and lift themselves from being a loser to become a winner.”
“The point is this, we are all born sinners and all of us need change for good in our lives. Just as I have had to struggle with the forces that tried to destroy me, so will others. Black folks are no different. I suggest needy black folks honestly examine themselves, check their attitude, honestly determine if they are a winner or a loser. If change is needed, work for that change. Abandon the victim mentality, run with winners, whether they be black or white.If black folks have to work twice as hard to overcome suspicion and profiling, then do so. Cops are not suspicious of black people because they are black or because the cop is a racist. Blacks draw the eyes of cops because a very large proportion of black people commit crime and cause trouble. It is rather simple, if black folks don’t want to be profiled or harmed by cops, then don’t do wrong, don’t act surly when stopped by cops and by all means don’t resist orders from a cop. Black parents and mentors must teach these points to young black kids.”
Meanwhile, a few brave locals are keeping up the pressure:
Olivet Pastor Steve Kern agrees with OCPAC Pres Charlie Meadows’ racist comment. http://t.co/VPS8L5hWTS @FannieBates pic.twitter.com/EP37JgsG4z
— Fannie Bates (@FannieBates) December 10, 2014
Sooo the NAACP doesn’t need to exist because of laws passed in 1964…but the John Birch Society DOES need to exist, even though they were thrown out of the party in 1964? I see how that works.
People like this always seem to think they are doing someone else a major favor by spouting off whatever pops into their ego-driven brains. It’s pretty pathetic that Meadows doesn’t even realize just how ignorant he sounds to sane people.