Justice Clarence Thomas doesn't have a thing on Shirley Sherrod.
wrongful termination n. a right of an employee to sue his/her employer for damages (loss of wage and "fringe" benefits, and, if against "public policy," for punitive damages). To bring such a suit: a) the discharge of the employee must have been without "cause" and he/she had an express employment contract or an "implied" contract based on the circumstances of hiring; or b) there is a violation of statutory prohibitions against discrimination due to race, gender, sexual preference or age; or c) the discharge was contrary to "public policy" such as in retribution for exposing dishonest acts of the employer. An employee who believes he/she has been wrongfully terminated may file a lawsuit for damages for discharge, as well as for breach of contract, but the court decisions have become increasingly strict in limiting an employee's grounds for
suit.
I believe that Shirley Sherrod, an representative of the Department of Agriculture has been wrongfully terminated.
"To bring such a suit: a) the discharge of the employee must have been without "cause" and he/she had an express employment contract or an "implied" contract based on the circumstances of hiring;"
As you who might be reading this probably know, Shirley Sherrod has been forced to resign as USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development because of a selectively edited video of her provided by www.biggovernment.com. (I will not post that video here. I refuse to. You can find it, if you want, yourself.) In the aftermath of that video, other videos have surfaced that have exonerated Ms. Sherrod, mostly because it is the full video and not selectively edited.
Once you see the video and get the full breadth of the video, you will realize that this is a story of redemption and not condemnation. It takes time, but please see the entire video. (The important stuff begins around the 16 minute mark)
I recall the hearings held for Clarence Thomas when he was chosen to replace the late, great Thurgood Marshall as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. In the middle of the hearings, revelations about inappropriate sexual innuendo were revealed between him and an associate, Anita Hill. At this point, Justice Thomas uttered the famous phrase, "And from my standpoint, as a black American, it is a high-tech lynching..."
No, Justice Thomas, what happened to Shirley Sherrod was a high-tech lynching. Anita Hill testified in full and Justice Thomas was able to defend himself in front of a jury of his peers. Ms. Sherrod was not able to confront her accuser or even given a chance to defend herself in a hearing. She was forced to resign...through her Blackberry. She texted her resignation through her Blackberry. Now, that's a high-tech lynching.
What angers me is that this could easily happen to any one of us. This is the age of cell phones as video cameras. What was edited lasted only a minute or so, though the entire speech was almost 40 minutes long. In it she says things like "We have to overcome the divisions we have." She also quotes Toni Morrison with "race exists, but it doesn't matter." She also took some time to elaborate on some of the mean-spirited (and racially charged) nature of the health care debate. The entire speech is about how we all still have to keep going and work through our divisions, not exacerbate them. This is quite different from what her accuser has said about her.
Imagine saying something political with some friends at a happy hour after work. Maybe it was in reference to some things said by your boss about the current political climate, something that you didn't agree with. The next day you find that your boss has a tape of you saying these things, though it is just a clip about 30 seconds long. Maybe your boss got a video from a cell phone (like what happened to Mel Gibson several years back). What are the odds that you are out on your butt a few minutes later?
This is what this really means. This is what the Andrew Breitbart's of the world really want. They want to scare you. They read 1984 and decided it was their operations manual.
Here is what I want you to do. Please e-mail the White House at www.whitehouse.gov and say these simple words.
"Defend Shirley Sherrod"
The administration was not the only one "snookered" by this smear by Andrew Breitbart of www.biggovernment.com. The NAACP's President Ben Jealous issued an apology after the truth started to come out. Others have followed.
From the interviews that I have seen of her on CNN, she seems to me to be a church-going, motherly type that would forgive the administration pretty easily. I am also reminded about something a friend of mine said years ago. "If you make a mistake and admit it, people will accept you. And they'll understand." He was right.
It seems to me that this could be a teachable moment for us all. Ms. Sherrod says in the video that in the old days when someone in the neighborhood got in trouble the community came around to help out. She also talks about self-reliance. She talks about entrepreneurship. This woman is not the enemy. We know who the enemy is. We need to help her out.
We also need to help the President understand that to fight does not mean you have to be angry. We are asking for him to be resolute. There are absolute rights and absolute wrongs. What has happened in the past couple of days has illustrated that beautifully. I believe that the Tea Party is not about what is right, but about power. How else do you explain Breitbart's actions? To quote Andrew Breitbart from an interview on CNN:
"This was about the NAACP attacking the Tea Party, and this is showing racism at an NAACP event," he said. "I did not ask for Shirley Sherrod to be fired."
This is a classic case of the ends justifying the means. They want power and will stop at nothing to get it.
Please help reinstate Shirley Sherrod. Otherwise, you will be very familiar with the definition at the beginning of this article.