FAIR
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
I see a very large promotion of the Southern Poverty Law Center appeared in the T.U. last week.
They are attacking FAIR, the anti-illegal alien group, as racist. Back in the day, it only took the label of Communist or Comsymp to ruin your reputation, if not put you in the poor house. Now a shorter word does it all.
Let's fess up. The word hate or love covers a lot of territory and is completely in the eye of the beholder. Many today see defending culture, borders, the English language and a number of other things that to some are still quite important parts of our lives as hateful. The Southern Poverty Law Center, whose owner is Morris Dees, has taken in millions allegedly fighting hate. But according to a three-year investigation by the Montgomery, Ala., Advertiser newspaper, there is quite a bit of hate around in his own offices as far as his treatment of nonwhite workers.
The following letter is an example of my point.
Tom Metzger
Warsaw, via e-mail
Kenneth C. Randall, Dean and
Thomas L. McMillan, Professor of Law
School of Law
University of Alabama
249 Law Center
Box 870382
101 Paul W. Bryan Drive
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0382
Dear Dean Randall:
Thank you very much for the invitation to speak at the law school's commencement in May. I am honored by the invitation, but regret that I am not able to accept it due to other commitments at that time.
I also received the law school's invitation to the presentation of the "Morris Dees Justice Award," which you also mentioned in your letter as one of the "great things" happening at the law school. I decline that invitation for another reason. Morris Dees is a con man and fraud, as I and others, such as U.S. Circuit Judge Cecil Poole, have observed and as has been documented by John Egerton, Harper's, the Montgomery Advertiser in its "Charity of Riches" series and others.
The positive contributions Dees has made to justice - most undertaken based upon calculations as to their publicity and fundraising potential - are far overshadowed by what Harper's described as his "flagrantly misleading" solicitations for money. He has raised millions upon millions of dollars with various schemes, never mentioning that he does not need the money because he has $175 million and two "poverty palace" buildings in Montgomery.
He has taken advantage of naive, well-meaning people - some of moderate or low incomes - who believe his pitches and give to his $175-million operation. He has spent most of what they have sent him to raise still more millions, pay high salaries and promote himself. Because he spends so much on fundraising, his operation spends $30 million a year to accomplish less than what many other organizations accomplish on shoestring budgets.
Sincerely,
Stephen B. Bright
Editor's Note: Stephen B. Bright is director of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta. It is a public interest legal project which provides representation to persons facing the death penalty and to prisoners in challenges to cruel and unusual conditions of confinement in eleven southern states. Responsibilities include representing individuals in capital and prisoners' rights cases, supervising capital and prisoners' rights litigation of nine-attorney staff, hiring and administration of the Center.
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I see a very large promotion of the Southern Poverty Law Center appeared in the T.U. last week.
They are attacking FAIR, the anti-illegal alien group, as racist. Back in the day, it only took the label of Communist or Comsymp to ruin your reputation, if not put you in the poor house. Now a shorter word does it all.
Let's fess up. The word hate or love covers a lot of territory and is completely in the eye of the beholder. Many today see defending culture, borders, the English language and a number of other things that to some are still quite important parts of our lives as hateful. The Southern Poverty Law Center, whose owner is Morris Dees, has taken in millions allegedly fighting hate. But according to a three-year investigation by the Montgomery, Ala., Advertiser newspaper, there is quite a bit of hate around in his own offices as far as his treatment of nonwhite workers.
The following letter is an example of my point.
Tom Metzger
Warsaw, via e-mail
Kenneth C. Randall, Dean and
Thomas L. McMillan, Professor of Law
School of Law
University of Alabama
249 Law Center
Box 870382
101 Paul W. Bryan Drive
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0382
Dear Dean Randall:
Thank you very much for the invitation to speak at the law school's commencement in May. I am honored by the invitation, but regret that I am not able to accept it due to other commitments at that time.
I also received the law school's invitation to the presentation of the "Morris Dees Justice Award," which you also mentioned in your letter as one of the "great things" happening at the law school. I decline that invitation for another reason. Morris Dees is a con man and fraud, as I and others, such as U.S. Circuit Judge Cecil Poole, have observed and as has been documented by John Egerton, Harper's, the Montgomery Advertiser in its "Charity of Riches" series and others.
The positive contributions Dees has made to justice - most undertaken based upon calculations as to their publicity and fundraising potential - are far overshadowed by what Harper's described as his "flagrantly misleading" solicitations for money. He has raised millions upon millions of dollars with various schemes, never mentioning that he does not need the money because he has $175 million and two "poverty palace" buildings in Montgomery.
He has taken advantage of naive, well-meaning people - some of moderate or low incomes - who believe his pitches and give to his $175-million operation. He has spent most of what they have sent him to raise still more millions, pay high salaries and promote himself. Because he spends so much on fundraising, his operation spends $30 million a year to accomplish less than what many other organizations accomplish on shoestring budgets.
Sincerely,
Stephen B. Bright
Editor's Note: Stephen B. Bright is director of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta. It is a public interest legal project which provides representation to persons facing the death penalty and to prisoners in challenges to cruel and unusual conditions of confinement in eleven southern states. Responsibilities include representing individuals in capital and prisoners' rights cases, supervising capital and prisoners' rights litigation of nine-attorney staff, hiring and administration of the Center.
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