Posted on 03/08/2012 9:31:52 AM PST by Baynative
HOW MUCH WILL PEOPLE TAKE BEFORE THEY RISE UP?
This is an excerpt that brings some good reasons to stop and think about what we are going to face in our next election - It is taken from a longer original article in the Knoxville Tennessee Sentinel I can't find.
(Excerpt) Read more at rootsweb.ancestry.com ...
In McMinn County during this era, it was a time of sheriff's gangs who strong armed citizens and tourists. Gambling and bootlegging blossomed. The sheriff was paid a meager salary but earned thousands of dollars on expenses based on the number of people arrested and jailed.
For a decade, the system and the machine of state Senator Paul Cantrell and Sheriff Pat Mansfield, both Crump men, worked with dedicated efficiency. But by 1946, when the boys came home from fighting for democracy, freedom and a way of life, they discovered their county was as far from being democratic as the fields of death the had just left.
The veterans decided to go to battle once more. This time though the battle was at the ballot box. At first
The soldiers turned politicians put up a bipartisan slate of candidates in the 1946 elections in Athens. They vowed that any citizen who cast his vote would have his vote counted as it was cast.
The situation could not have been more explosive. One who saw it all and broadcast it to McMinn County and eventually to the world was C.C. "Chuck" Redfern. Today he is county trustee, but in 1946 he was station manager and announcer for WLAR in Athens. He had ringside seat perched on a fire escape outside a building facing the McMinn County jail.
Trouble began early in the voting when ex-GI's, who were poll watchers, asked to see ballot boxes and were refused. A black man, another veteran, was shot by a hired deputy. Later, ballot boxes were taken to the jail and late in the evening, the veterans, fresh from the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific, broke into the National Guard Armory, and began handing out guns and ammunition. No one had to tell them what to do next.
They surrounded the jail and were on a high bank looking down into the building. Strategically, they had placed a .30 caliber machine gun atop a building overlooking the jail. When shooting broke out it lasted all night. Early in the morning, a soldier slithered underneath parked cars near the jail and tossed dynamite onto the jail porch. The explosion blew away part of the porch and collapsed a portion of it supported overhang. That did it. The deputies came out with their hands over their heads. They were hustled to the corner of Washington and White streets. A huge crowd gathered.
It was dramatic. Some wanted to hang the deputies. One deputy's throat was slashed. By now, it was not only the veterans who were gathered and doing the shouting. Through out the all-night war in the streets no one was killed, although several were wounded.
"But no one died. That is the miracle of the battle and in fact it change politics in this county forever," says Redfern. "We went to a county council form of government with a county manager after that. Later, in the 1980's, we changed to a county executive system. But what happened that night has been a good thing. It brought about a sound two party system. People have paid attention to the elective process."
Redfern pauses, reviewing the terrible moments of that night. "When I first came here from Illinois, just after the war, people told me that they took two things seriously here - religion and politics. I found out real quick about the politics. I was a Marine in the South Pacific, but I came closer to getting killed that night than I did in the war," he says as he inches to the edge of his chair. " I will never forget. I used to sign off the air 'This is the friendly voice of the friendly city. When I signed off that night you could hear the shots bang, bang, bang in the background. That broke me up."
It all makes me wonder what the dems will pull this time to keep the community organizer in office and how much the public will watch in passive helplessness.
History does repeat itself. Just wonder if its going to be this year.
Me too, last month in a history of McMinn County book my wife found at a garage sale in Athens.
Excellent story.
I wonder if there will be a sequel.
Very interesting... stuff we do not hear about from the MSM.
This kind of local corruption and all out greed and stuck on evil behavior is a fixation from hell that I am getting familiarized with these days.
THe media wants to portray us as punishers and mean people. Folkes, it’s about remembering the unjustice and the real victims. All this cowardly crocodile tear bleeding heart for murderers and crooks needs to go.
Move On retards repeat history of death.
It is guaranteed that the history of election tampering by democrats will repeat itself. I hope that there is no violence as the result. But, I pray that America finds a way to rise up against the criminals and their media.
I dunno. Will the Catholic let him force the nunns to mary and be raped as they do in Islam.
Even this is unheard of in the SOviet Union which kept nuns in camps.
A video re-creation of the incident can be found here:
http://voxvocispublicus.homestead.com/Battle-of-Athens.html
13 minutes long. At the end are some still photos of the actual participants.
It may come, but it's not going to be pretty...
The sad truth is your right , they out number us, those on the government TIT and those of us that work for a living. Its coming I don't know , it may be tomorrow or next year but its almost here.
I said, “think about what we are going to face in our next election.” Because it has become common place to watch the democrats rig elections, register non existent people, commit voter fraud, find miracle ballot boxes loaded with all democrat votes, toss ballot boxes from (R) districts into the bay, intimidate voters and commit any and all sorts of crimes against the citizens and the representative process with THE HELP OF THE MEDIA.””
And his is exactly why they continue to fight voter photo id and record keeping.
ping
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.