A Special Message for a Special Time
Billy Keyserling
Last night (Saturday) there was a special gathering of Beaufortonians from all walks of life in the Waterfront Park to Remember the nine Americans murdered in Charleston. Thanks to the organizers who brought people out to share their thoughts and feelings about those lost and how much work we have to do to eradicate hate and injustice.  Of particular note was twelve year old Jack Fleming who put much in perspective to those of us who are adults and who are perhaps hardened to or blinded to some of what is wrong in the world around us. We owe it to Jack and his generation to keep the conversation going.



A Young Man with a Bold Voice, a Huge Vision, A Strong Sense of The Importance of History and an Unyielding Commitment to Community Service and Justice For All was taken from us.

 

I had the privilege of knowing a young but very huge man. I spoke with him as recently as thirty days ago about a local concern and he jumped right on it.

 

When I served in the SC House of Representatives, Clementa Pinkney was the page for Representative Juanita White from Jasper County who served on the Beaufort County Legislative Delegation which I chaired.  No one could have been more considerate, gentle, pleasant and respectful to the 124 members of the House. That is likely why Clementa Pinckney was honored as the Chief Page. 

 

When Representative While retired, Clementa moved into the seat joining the Beaufort Delegation.  Several years after serving in the House, when Senator McKinley Washington retired, Clementa moved graciously into the Senate where he was effective and much attuned to the needs and concerns of the people of Jasper and Beaufort Counties and beyond.

 

Melding his career as the Pastor of one of the most historically significant churches in Charleston with his Senate duties was no easy task for Clementa,  though he wore both hats with dignity, grace and a strong sense of duty to mankind.  


On Thursday, Henry Louis Gates, a Harvard University historian who interviewed Pinckney for a PBS documentary in 2012, honored the fallen legislator in the New York Times with a piece that celebrated the state senator's commitment to his black heritage.

 

"Mr. Pinckney was deeply aware of the history he carried within himself, a history of the courageous and the slain, of the triumphant and the terrorized. He was fluent in the lives and careers of brave black people who had served state and church since the Civil War. He was acutely conscious of the missed opportunities of Reconstruction, of the contradictions that could have been settled, of the innocent lives that could have been spared, a century before the civil rights struggle of the 1960's, had Americans following the Civil War only been willing to put racial healing and equal economic opportunity first."

 

Please Join Us Monday evening to Celebrate the Life of Reverend / Senator Clementa Pinckney and in doing so recommit ourselves, in his honor, to a more just, a more loving and a more peaceful society.  The time is NOW.






This evening (Sunday) people will gather at 7:45 pm to form a human chain on the sidewalk of the Woods Bridge in concert with a similar event that will take place at 8 pm in our mourning sister city of Charleston.
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