No. 13 - May 17, 2005

UBUNTU - "I am what I am because of who we all are." For a more complete definition, visit Wikipedia

Greetings,

We spent hours over the past weeks trying to do ourselves what we're Mandated to help the rest of the community do: understand what happened Nov. 3, 1979, in all of its complexity. It takes more time than we knew and we're making necessary adjustments. Thanks for bearing with us.

• Having studied our research to date and clarified its direction for the future, we've settled on having three public hearings, on July 15-16, Aug. 26-27 and Sept. 16-17. Location(s), other details TBA.
• Congratulations to artist Aliene Howell, winner of our poster contest. Aliene's a recent Guilford College art grad who has been studying and participating in this history-making effort since its start. The image she submitted best captured the healing aspirations we have for our public hearings.
• We met last week with participants in the Communist Workers Party rally at which the 1979 shootings happened. It was the second in our series of informal conversations designed to help us understand the perspectives of groups connected to what happened. The third will focus on labor. Former mill workers, managers and labor organizers interested in attending should contact Chelsea (336-275-6462).
• This week's progress indicator: Since being sworn in, the seven Commissioners have devoted 900 hours to Commission meetings and other official gatherings. That's not counting travel, individual reading, door-to-door outreach and other related work.

Upcoming:

• Friday-Saturday, July 15-16, first GTRC Public Hearing, Location to be announced.
• Thursday, Nov. 3, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 8 p.m., War Memorial Auditorium, part of Guilford College's Bryan Series on "Spirit and Spirituality."

Latest news coverage:

• Yes! Weekly coverage, May 11, 2005