Hell welcomes its newest resident

[Gentle Giant]

Maybe I'm getting to be a cruel bastard in my old age, but with Arafat and now this guy, I'm starting to enjoy some people's deaths.

Bobby Frank Cherry; bombed black church in '63
By Bob Johnson, Associated Press *|* November 19, 2004
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Bobby Frank Cherry, convicted of killing four black girls in a racially motivated bombing of a Birmingham church in 1963, died yesterday in prison. He was 74.

Mr. Cherry was convicted in May 2002 in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a gathering place for civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, and was sentenced to life in prison.

He was among three former Ku Klux Klan members convicted in the bombing. Thomas Blanton was convicted in 2001 and is serving a life sentence. Robert Chambliss, convicted in 1977, also died in prison.

The Sept. 15, 1963, explosion killed Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, all 14, and Denise McNair, 11.

Collins's sister, Sarah Collins Rudolph, lost an eye in the blast. Her husband expressed sorrow that Mr. Cherry had died.

''I hope he was saved. I hope he repented," George C. Rudolph said.

Mr. Cherry had been suffering from cancer and complained last summer that he was not receiving proper treatment and was being held as a political prisoner.

The bomb shook downtown Birmingham as church members prepared for a youth-led Sunday worship service. The city's public schools had been integrated a few days earlier after a six-year court fight, and tensions had been running high.

Although Mr. Cherry, Blanton, and Chambliss were all considered suspects within days afterward, the case went unsolved for years until then-Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley reopened the investigation and successfully prosecuted Chambliss. Mr. Cherry and Blanton were prosecuted years later after new evidence, including FBI files, became available.

Although Mr. Cherry denied involvement in the bombing, both publicly and in interviews with investigators, prosecutors reopened the case in 1995 and found five estranged family members and acquaintances who said Mr. Cherry boasted of taking part.

''He said he lit the fuse," his ex-wife, Willadean Brogdon, testified at his trial.

He was convicted May 22, 2002, by a jury of nine whites and three blacks after prosecutors painted him as a staunch segregationist who was upset about the schools' integration.

Asked for comment after the verdict, Mr. Cherry stood and pointed at prosecutors: ''This whole bunch lied all the way through this thing. I told the truth. I don't know why I'm going to jail for nothing."

In an appeal, Mr. Cherry argued witnesses who might have helped his case could not be located because of the long delay. He also argued that it was unfair to hold the trial in Birmingham, a city rich with civil rights history and where the case received extensive news coverage. The appeals court disagreed, saying coverage was ''factual, objective and non-sensational."

It also said it was not the prosecution's fault FBI files were not available earlier.

Mr. Cherry's daughter, Karen Sunderland, said yesterday Mr. Cherry would be buried in Texas. ''He was a good man," she said, sobbing.*

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

Maybe I'm getting to be a cruel bastard in my old age

Welcome to the club.

[sonic1]

I hope the bastard had a painful time leaving this world.

[Dr Dave]

"political prisoner"

um-hummmm...I wouldn't count on that "repented" part. Well, he's gone, anyway.

I certainly won't be mourning this death.

[Gentle Giant]

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Eulogy for the Young Victims of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing, delivered at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church

18 September 1963
Birmingham, Ala.

[Delivered at funeral service for three of the children—Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, and Cynthia Diane Wesley—killed in the bombing. A separate service was held for the fourth victim, Carole Robertson.]

This afternoon we gather in the quiet of this sanctuary to pay our last tribute of respect to these beautiful children of God. They entered the stage of history just a few years ago, and in the brief years that they were privileged to act on this mortal stage, they played their parts exceedingly well. Now the curtain falls; they move through the exit; the drama of their earthly life comes to a close. They are now committed back to that eternity from which they came.

These children—unoffending, innocent, and beautiful—were the victims of one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity.

And yet they died nobly. They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity. And so this afternoon in a real sense they have something to say to each of us in their death. They have something to say to every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows. They have something to say to every politician who has fed his constituents with the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism. They have something to say to a federal government that has compromised with the undemocratic practices of southern Dixiecrats and the blatant hypocrisy of right-wing northern Republicans. They have something to say to every Negro who has passively accepted the evil system of segregation and who has stood on the sidelines in a mighty struggle for justice. They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream.

And so my friends, they did not die in vain. God still has a way of wringing good out of evil. And history has proven over and over again that unmerited suffering is redemptive. The innocent blood of these little girls may well serve as a redemptive force that will bring new light to this dark city. The holy Scripture says, "A little child shall lead them." The death of these little children may lead our whole Southland from the low road of man's inhumanity to man to the high road of peace and brotherhood. These tragic deaths may lead our nation to substitute an aristocracy of character for an aristocracy of color. The spilled blood of these innocent girls may cause the whole citizenry of Birmingham to transform the negative extremes of a dark past into the positive extremes of a bright future. Indeed this tragic event may cause the white South to come to terms with its conscience.

And so I stand here to say this afternoon to all assembled here, that in spite of the darkness of this hour, we must not despair. We must not become bitter, nor must we harbor the desire to retaliate with violence. No, we must not lose faith in our white brothers. Somehow we must believe that the most misguided among them can learn to respect the dignity and the worth of all human personality.

May I now say a word to you, the members of the bereaved families? It is almost impossible to say anything that can console you at this difficult hour and remove the deep clouds of disappointment which are floating in your mental skies. But I hope you can find a little consolation from the universality of this experience. Death comes to every individual. There is an amazing democracy about death. It is not aristocracy for some of the people, but a democracy for all of the people. Kings die and beggars die; rich men and poor men die; old people die and young people die. Death comes to the innocent and it comes to the guilty. Death is the irreducible common denominator of all men.

I hope you can find some consolation from Christianity's affirmation that death is not the end. Death is not a period that ends the great sentence of life, but a comma that punctuates it to more lofty significance. Death is not a blind alley that leads the human race into a state of nothingness, but an open door which leads man into life eternal. Let this daring faith, this great invincible surmise, be your sustaining power during these trying days.

Now I say to you in conclusion, life is hard, at times as hard as crucible steel. It has its bleak and difficult moments. Like the ever-flowing waters of the river, life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood. Like the ever-changing cycle of the seasons, life has the soothing warmth of its summers and the piercing chill of its winters. And if one will hold on, he will discover that God walks with him, and that God is able to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope, and transform dark and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of inner peace.

And so today, you do not walk alone. You gave to this world wonderful children. They didn’t live long lives, but they lived meaningful lives. Their lives were distressingly small in quantity, but glowingly large in quality. And no greater tribute can be paid to you as parents, and no greater epitaph can come to them as children, than where they died and what they were doing when they died. They did not die in the dives and dens of Birmingham, nor did they die discussing and listening to filthy jokes. They died between the sacred walls of the church of God, and they were discussing the eternal meaning of love. This stands out as a beautiful, beautiful thing for all generations. Shakespeare had Horatio to say some beautiful words as he stood over the dead body of Hamlet. And today, as I stand over the remains of these beautiful, darling girls, I paraphrase the words of Shakespeare: Good night, sweet princesses. Good night, those who symbolize a new day. And may the flight of angels take thee to thy eternal rest. God bless you.

[GoodSpeak]

As much as I despised Arafat, I wouldn't wish hell on my worst enemy.


Otherwise, you cannot believe in redemption for a person's transgressions.






My two cents...not that it actually matters.

[Gentle Giant]

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

As much as I despised Arafat, I wouldn't wish hell on my worst enemy.


Otherwise, you cannot believe in redemption for a person's transgressions.






My two cents...not that it actually matters.

Your two cents matter as much as anyone else's. However, it doesn't sound like this guy had any sort of revelation or remorse by the time he checked out. I'm more concerned with souls of the 14- and 11-year-old girls to whom he gave tickets to heaven.

I don't believe in a fiery hell, anyway. I think it's more like heaven is first class, and hell is coach.

[GoodSpeak]

Fair enough.



I just think, no...believe in my heart of hearts that anyone can turn.




Call me Polly Anna/Andrew, I don't care.



I just cannot allow myself to believe that any human being is beyond redemption.



















Even Monte.

[bluenoter]

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

As much as I despised Arafat, I wouldn't wish hell on my worst enemy.

Goody, did you happen to notice that this thread isn't about Arafat? If not, try reading it.

An "Arafat, Dead" thread is elsewhere.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

I just cannot allow myself to believe that any human being is beyond redemption.








Even Monte.

Goody, I can't tell you how much that means coming from one of the Lord's simplest creatures.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by bluenoter

Goody, did you happen to notice that this thread isn't about Arafat? If not, try reading it.

An "Arafat, Dead" thread is elsewhere.

Um.

Have you noticed I was using Arafat as an example?






















Grammatically correct, of course.

[hornplayer]

It's hard for me to believe that anyone could read those poignant words spoken so long ago by Dr. King and not be talking about their relevance today... more than 40 years later.

Instead, someone has missed the point completely and everyone else has turned this thread into drivel.