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THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, January 17, 2020 ~ Guest Commentary ~ Page 15 How Martin Luther King, Jr. Changed Hearts By Dr. Earl H. Tilford M y father was a Presbyterian minister in rural northwest Alabama from 1961 to 1965. I came of age there, then left the University of Alabama with an M.A. in history in 1969. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Governor George C. Wallace framed the historical context of a changing south to which I returned in 2008. In retrospect, 1963 was a watershed year in my life. On June 11, 1963, I watched on the television in our den as Governor Wallace stood in the door at the University of Alabama’s Foster Auditorium to fulfill a campaign promise to physically stop school desegregation. Quixotic as this proved, given that two African American students were already registered, the gesture got him reelected three times. Later that summer, on August 28, I watched as Martin Luther King eloquently prophesized “one day right there in Alabama” black children would “be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” Eventually, those days arrived. A month later, on Sunday, September 15, 1963, while I was in my room studying Spanish at the start of my high school senior year, my dad summoned me to the den where he had been watching professional football. A news bulletin revealed four young African American girls were killed at Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church when a bomb detonated under the backstairs by a women’s bathroom where they primped after Sunday School. My dad, who previously had supported racial segregation, wept. “Son, if this is ‘defending our southern way of life,’ it’s not worth it.” The next Sunday his sermon was titled “God the Father Implies the Brotherhood of Mankind.” It was not well received. Dad’s epiphany resulted in a series of sermons related to securing civil rights while abjuring violence in the process. On a January night in 1965, during my freshman year in Tuscaloosa, while dad was in Huntsville, Klansmen burned a cross on our lawn. This terrified my deaf-sincebirth mother. They also shot and killed my dog. In April, my parents moved to serve a church in Coral Gables, Florida. I remained at the University of Alabama for four more years. My father’s ministry ended two decades later as a missionary in the Cayman Islands. The bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, along with many other atrocities, were part of the warp and woof of life in Alabama during the turbulent 1960s. While a student, I heard Governor Wallace speak on campus every year at the annual Governor’s Day celebration. In 1967, his wife, the newly elected Gov. Lurleen B. Wallace, awarded me the Air Force ROTC’s “Military Excellence” medal. After I saluted her, Alabama’s real “Guvnor” standing beside her, heartily shook my hand, “Congratulations, son! Alabama is proud of you.” I nodded and smiled. Martin Luther King, Jr. masterfully used rhetoric to deliver a powerful message that he effectively coupled to imageries of repression that included fire hoses, police batons, and cattle prods against demonstrators. The arc of history moved inexorably toward justice overcoming prejudice backed by Klan violence. Change came slowly, subtly, but surely. On Monday, July 6, 1964, four days after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, my father, mother, and I drove to Tuscaloosa from Leighton, Alabama. A scholarship for which I’d applied required a family interview with one of the university’s deans. On the way into town dad spotted a Morrison’s Cafeteria at campus edge. After the interview, dad suggested we have lunch there before the long drive home. As we drove into the parking lot, we spotted Klan picketers in full regalia mulling around the entrance. Mom strongly urged going elsewhere. Dad grumbled, “Bozos don’t tell me where I can eat.” Those Klansmen intended to intimidate would-be patrons of any color. As we approached, I noticed a sign: “You might be eating off the same plates as coloreds.” Undaunted, dad led us into the line: where a hulking Klansman stepped in front of my father and snickered, “Y’all must be some kind of Expletive lovers.” Dad, a former collegiate football lineman, fixed that Klansman with a cold, unblinking stare and then replied in a measured and unwavering voice, “You bet.” The Klansman grunted, then stepped back. My father had become part of a changing South. With time, many white southern hearts changed. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s message of peaceful resistance moved America toward his vision, stated eloquently on August 28, 1963: “A day will come when all God’s children … will be able to join hands and sing the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.’” Today, we honor Dr. King’s memory. Dr. Earl Tilford is a military historian and fellow for the Middle East & terrorism with the Institute for Faith and Freedom at Grove City College. He currently lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. A retired Air Force intelligence officer, Dr. Tilford earned his PhD in American and European military history at George Washington University. From 1993 to 2001, he served as Director of Research at the U.S. Army’s Strategic Studies Institute. In 2001, he left Government service for a professorship at Grove City College, where he taught courses in military history, national security, and international and domestic terrorism and counter-terrorism. ~ Letter-to-the-Editor ~ Cannabis licensing brings renewed focus on 2016 ballot question Dear Editor, The last few months of 2019 saw four different community input meetings held by prospective licensees hoping to open retail marijuana establishments in Malden, and with that has come renewed focus on the 2016 ballot questions that legalized Marijuana in Massachusetts and permitted such establishments in Malden. In November of 2016, voters were asked to vote on Question 4, Legalization, regulation and taxation of marijuana. The question read simply “If voters say ‘yes’, Massachusetts will join Colorado, Alaska, Oregon, Washington State and District of Columba in legalizing marijuana for recreational use.” On a statewide level, the ballot question passed 53.7% to 46.3%. The margin was by far the narrowest of any of the ballot questions that year. However, as written, voters were likely of the belief that they were simply voting on legalizing the recreational use of Marijuana, unaware of the fine print that would really determine the impact of a Yes or No vote on their particular community. Like all ballot questions, the question itself only represents a summary, with the law behind it being much more complex. However, the question on the ballot should give the voters enough information to weigh the true potential impact of a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote on their community. There were likely many underlying elements of question 4 that weren’t well known to most voters; in fact, many local officials were understandably unaware of the nuances of Question 4 until months sometimes years later. Perhaps the most critical detail was that with a successful outcome statewide, each community would be required to allow a minimum number of retail marijuana licenses equal to 20% of the number of ‘off premise consumption’ liquor licenses that exist in that city. For Malden, this equates to five (5) retail marijuana establishments. To override that requirement, either through an outright ban or a reduction in the allowable number of stores, would require a local referendum. After the passage of the ballot question, state lawmakers made a significant change to the law regarding local control. For the 260 communities that voted in favor of the ballot initiative, a referendum would still be required to prohibit or restrict marijuana stores from opening. However, for the 91 communities that voted against the Question 4, it would require only the approval of the City Council or Board of Selectman to restrict or prohibit marijuana stores. Many questioned whether such a change runs afoul of the equal protection provisions of the state constitution. The Massachusetts Municipal Association, which represents cities and towns, called the solution unfortunate and disappointing. The group supported giving all communities the power to control marijuana through their local governing bodies. The end result is that a community such as Dedham, where the Yes votes outnumber the No votes by only 29 votes, has little local control without a referendum while Weymouth, where out of 29,000 votes the No votes outnumbered the Yes votes by only 150 votes, the local elected body would have significant control over how to introduce retail marijuana to their community. In light of the challenges with Question 4, Communities across the state continue to work to determine the will of their voters as it relates to implementing retail marijuana in their individual cities and towns. Interestingly, where subsequent referendums were held, almost without exception communities that supported legalizing recreational marijuana by a narrow margin, similar to Malden, subsequently voted to restrict if not outright ban retail sales in the same city or town. There can be only one conclusion from such a result, which is that voters didn’t fully understand the important details of Question 4 and the impact on each individual community. Local elected officials have been left in the difficult position after the fact of picking up the pieces and reconciling the will of the voters. The Malden City Council did an admirable job of drafting an ordinance that provides for a thorough and transparent process for licensing. Whether that process will result in the licensing of more establishments than the voters intended when supporting Question 4 is a question still worth answering. Consider the following wording of Question 4, which utilizes the same number of words and consider the impact on the outcome of the ballot initiative: “If voters say “yes”, recreational marijuana will be allowed and each city/ town must allow one marijuana store for every five liquor stores.” The voters deserved a greater understanding of the impact of such an important question. It’s not too late. Signed, Name Withheld Upon Request Malden, MA

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