Sheriff Clark, Do The Right Thing!

The following letter was submitted to several local newspapers as a "Letter To The Editor":

The decision by Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark – a Republican – to defy a Presidential proclamation to lower the United States flag to half mast in honor of the memory of the late Nelson Mandela has reinforced an image of our state as a place steeped in prejudice, backwoods defiance, and ignorance of social progress, even in the face of the facts concerning history. Sheriff Clark's action, following just a couple of years after the forced resignation of a popular Police Chief in the town of Pickens who referred to African-American members of Pickens City Council by use of the "N" word, only deepens the suspicion that there is a deep seated racial divide among us which is being manifested by those in authority. These actions along with a number of other racially tinged issues - including the long running battle over the status of the Confederate flag over the State House, the refusal of Pickens County School Officials to allow broadcast of an address by the recently elected President Obama to students, and Republican efforts to enact voter identifications laws that are seen as targeting the African-American community in a higher proportion than the general population could lead one to conclude that sadly, there is solid evidence to support this unattractive image of South Carolina and particularly Pickens County.

Sheriff Clark's refusal to lower the flag on the grounds that Mandela was not an American flies in the face of historic precedent. This action has been utilized by Presidents to honor foreign dignitaries including Lafayette, Mother Theresa, Winston Churchill, Pope John Paul II, and the late King of Jordan among others. The one unique aspect of the present occasion is that this proclamation was made by the first African-American President of the United States designed to honor the legacy of the first black President of South Africa after apartheid. That fact should have weighed in Sheriff Clark's thinking before deciding to make such a stand because it now illustrates his insensitivity to issues that as a leader he must address or the public is left to draw it's own conclusions concerning his motives.

The fact that both of these incident's in Pickens County involve local law enforcement officials only heightens the concern about motives. During the hard fought civil rights struggles of the 20th century, it was local law enforcement officials who were in the forefront, using every means at their disposal to stop the forward march of progress. This is a stain on the honor of law enforcement that has still not been completely removed. In the last 50 years, since those titanic struggles for equality Pickens County may have had only one Sheriff but the public attitudes have surely changed. The irony is Sheriff Clark ran for office claiming to represent a new vision in law enforcement. With such a past legacy bequeath to him Sheriff Clark should have shown more sensitivity to the damage his current action would do to Pickens County. In a global economy where Pickens County must compete for jobs, luring industry and maintaining a reputation befitting the home of several first class institutions of higher learning, this defiant action was not only a moral outrage serving as a slap at the struggle for equality, but economically questionable as well.

There is still opportunity for the harmful effects to be minimized. Sheriff Clark should step up, be the leader he claimed to aspire to during last year's campaign. Acknowledge his mistake concerning historic precedent and it's application, accept the fact that lowering the flag is the Presidents prerogative and announce plans to lower the flag next Sunday when Nelson Mandela is laid to rest. In doing so this morally repugnant and shameful issue can be put to rest and festering wounds need not be reopened.