Cartooning Carolina's capitol & county seat: Memories & Georgia justice

It was Union County, NC 1988, home of the famed Jesse Helms––county seat, Monroe. I had been called to jury duty and sat an uncomfortable several days on a jury hearing a case of two young men who had attempted robbery of an 80-year-old woman at her home. When she explained she didn't have any money, they proceeded to push her to the floor and continuously kick her in the head until her head swelled, black and blue with massive brain damage. She survived, but the resulting vegetative state destined her for a nursing home for the rest of her life.

Tears welled as the pictures were shown to the jury. The elder of the two was on trial, and nearly resulting in "hung" we were able to agree to the guilty verdict after testimony proved well beyond a shadow of a doubt the man's guilt. It was a first-hand introduction to the criminal justice and court system. Many of the processes were surprising.

It was after that the decision to use the artistic talent for something good came to mind, like contributing to police-type work. I approached the police department and asked if they needed sketch artists, being experienced in portraiture. They had identification kits packaged, and had no use for artists talents.

How the next best choice became politics is difficult to remember or explain. Someone suggested it, and I created a couple cartoons on issues and took them to the editor of the local newspaper, Ramie Barker, of the Enquirer Journal.

An initial hit locally, the cartoons were passed around the state legislature and were handy tools in making points. Many were having fun with them, and I'd hear rumors of them making calls to each other saying, "You're in the 'Looney-toon' today."

I had most of the local politicians cartooned, and most were centered on local and state issues. Ramie disallowed national cartoons saying he could get those syndicated for fifty cents each. He wanted state and local issues addressed, he was Republican and the county had been controlled by the Democrat party for more than 100 years.

To finish that story, after the Democrats were replaced by Republicans on the Union County commission, Ramie was fired from his job. An Ivy Leaguer came down from up north to take his place as editor, and my cartoons fizzled out. The conservative Republican, Ramie went on to work for Democrat Senator Robert Byrd of West VIrginia.

It was a crash-course in politics. I cartooned there from 1988 - 1992 with more than 100 cartoons and illustrations published.

After that stint, with solving the ills of the country in mind, The Wiz, and Dorothy's, "in your own back yard" comment comes to mind. If folks could clean up the local courts, town halls and move on to scrutinize state and local governments, we'd surely cure our ills and be living life in Emerald City.

To bring about change, there's only one entity to do it––the fourth branch of government: The Media. And by my experience on a small town level, they're scared. Yep folks, the newspaper was scared to tackle some of the more powerful state politicians. Those were the rumors.

Only the media can uncover fraud, waste, corruption, criminal activity at high levels, and notify the voting public that will then bring about change. Entities and organizations seldom thoroughly police themselves. But while the media is a tool, it's also a business depending on other businesses to survive. So if the media is unwilling or unable to fairly inform the public, then change will never happen.

In this country, far more emphasis is placed on national politics than state or local politics. And national politicians are beyond the reach of normal, working people. It's the local politicians that can assist them best. Like in national politics, state level and local politics often have the same families, and career politicians in power over the course of, sometimes decades. So if change is to come about, there are old bonds and ties to be broken.

With time corruption and decadence can creep in and infiltrate the upper levels of society and then the working folks begin to suffer. When high crime is concealed, locally good, honest folks live in fear. It shouldn't happen.

Having lived in more than one state, I can say North Carolina isn't exclusive in having top-rot problems. D.O.T. seems to be a concern in more than one state, and just now in Kentucky a court case is silently proceeding in a bid-rigging scandal for roads contracts. It's difficult to find information about it in the news. Why?

In NC the D.O.T. board was a coveted position for state legislators. Rumors flew of one powerful state senator and DOT board member routing roads through his property to raise the land value.

Other stories circulated of blocking town incorporation at the state level to appease friends and campaign donors who owned farms in the area. The area about to be annexed would be provided with water and sewer from the adjacent Mecklenburg County (Charlotte.) The developers would get rich, and so would the good ole boys who owned the land. And the politician insured the next term campaign donations. (The tax payers of Mecklenburg were footing the sewer/water bill.)

Then yet another story floated around about a developer who had been alloted a certain number of new homes for the existing sewage system. Any more would overflow the system, but political strings were pulled to make it happen.

Then there was a story of a female assistant district attorney in that same NC county who refused to go along with local, corrupt antics of the court house boys. She apparently had conscience issues. And, as the story went, they destroyed her––absolutely wrecked her life.

As a cartoonist I saw my duty to inform the public, spur interest, involvement, and even help initiate change. So the Snidely Whiplash stories of shady politics and good ole boy networks inspired more aggressive cartoons.

What I found at the editor's desk, is that they refused to tackle one, particular senator. Why? Because they were afraid of the guy. Afraid of a respectable politician? Who could imagine that?

It was difficult to believe. But so were the words of another senator, "You'll never get rid of drugs in this country. Too many politicians are making money from drugs." Politicians in drugs? Who wants to believe something like that?

Recently Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson stepped down from his position caught in more than an illicit affair with a lobbyist. One of the worst things he did was threaten to "bring all hell" down on his ex-wife, even with use of state police and state agencies. Like Sarah Palin who fired her brother-in-law for his relationship with her sister, is this what we can expect from an ever increasingly fascist ruling-elite class of Americans? So what's next? They'll be putting folks in gas chambers?

So where was the media? Where were the respectable newspapers? Hiding in a fox hole watching from a distance protecting their own assets and families? Were they dining at the local country club with the senators who fixed the septic problem? Were they courting business from the representative whose son was on the local road planning board? Was their brother working for the developer, or running the local water department?

What most folks don't understand, reporting news and protecting communities walk hand-in-hand. No corporation wants to move business to an area latent with corruption and crime. Such negativity lowers the standard of living and everybody suffers. So editors must walk a fine line of reporting and coverup. It's a fact of life.

Bloggers today are the media of tomorrow. While there are no paychecks, and no bosses, 'some things you do for love.'

Just be very careful, or you might find yourself living among organized, shady people in a deceitful, corrupt area no longer recognizable as the homeland. The Big Boys can, and will destroy a person in the USA. With political consultants, it's a profession. The incredible stress they create with the justice system, and agencies is meant to break a person. For the victim or target, defecting (as Russians did under Communism) becomes an brainstorming option, while [as a political cartoonist,] seeking political asylum elsewhere becomes another.

Thoughts of friends and family changes plans. Nieces, nephews, grandchildren, will suffer under increasing high-level corruption. It isn't what their ancestors fought for, and their ancestors did not run away.

After tipping off NC authorities about Amy Frink's murderer, a few months later, 1998-99 my son was allegedly dead in Alabama, I found myself in jails, divorce court, harassed by police, stalked by criminals, incarcerated against my will in a state hospital, and finally the divorce came to trial. The lawyer and my executive husband now had control of all of my belongings, paintings, art, heirlooms and family possessions also has my original cartoons and a volume of tear sheets. I was surviving in the streets, had fled Georgia only to find more of the harassment in Kentucky. The criminal high-level networking was interstate.

At the Georgia trial, they brought my artist's work, cartoons, graphics designs to court to show Cobb County's Judge Adele Grubbs how very talented I was. The problem is they didn't ask my permission, and basically used my art for their financial gain which is a copyright issue. Later, my attorney, Kenneth Schatten's private detective, Billy Carter, agreed to get the volume of cartoons back for me, but it never happened. I still have no idea where they might be.

In Georgia they can legally put you out of your home and take possession of your belongings. And if you have a worthless attorney, there's nothing you can do about it. In fact you'll be blacklisted from justice altogether and they'll see to it because they have social networks and discuss cases, according to Schatten. In my case I'm certain it crossed state lines. I've heard other Georgia women's stories about courts, and the "we were laughing and ridiculing you at a party," is a tool used by an attorney against his clients in at least two situations I am aware of. I personally believe it's a tactic used hoping to create a suicide scenario in a client's mind. Cut-and-dried justice is a good term for these social gatherings involving ongoing cases. There, attorney-client privilege apparently doesn't exist.

I kept wondering where they were hiding their gas chambers.

Luckily I had another volume of cartoons. Had I not been able to prove my North Carolina cartooning history, I suppose they might have said, "She's delusional." That, along with using police and agencies to destroy people, is part of their "legal justice" game in Georgia. Had I not known about the N.C. assistant district attorney they'd destroyed, about a senator's wife in Florida 1973 who suffered the same, and a Michigan friend's brother who was framed in prison on concocted stories and arrangements, I'd have been more startled. Because of these people, my life all those years following the arrests were in unraveling the network and exposing the good ole' boys who bring these things about. May the Good Ole' Boys enjoy the eternal inferno they're destined for. Surely there will be a cocktail party where they can discuss their clients assets with the Devil, himself.

"The Devil Went Down to Georgia......" - Charlie Daniels