Dan Pollitt was a dedicated activist and leader in our community for decades. He passed away this morning after a lifetime dedicated to peace and justice. My heart goes out to his wife Senator Ellie Kinnaird and the rest of his family. But the loss is all of ours. Pollitt was a beacon, lighting the way forward from just a little ahead of the rest of us.

Here's the Independent's profile of him from 10 years ago:

Chapel Hill attorney Bill Massengill nails it: "He's the aggressive-liberal gentleman. Dan can aggressively press his ideas without offending people." Even when those ideas are quite hopelessly out of fashion--as they so very often are.

Take, for example, Pollitt's defense of free association amid Red Scare panic. Or integration in the Jim Crow South. It took the times some time to catch up with Pollitt on those two.

"This is a local event,” Mayor Kevin Foy said in an official Town video. “If you can walk to Halloween, you’re invited. If you can’t, don’t come.”

Wow. Watch the Youtube clip. Lame.

(3 min 15 sec) CUE CREEPY MUSIC and Watch Mayor KEVIN FOY DISAPPEAR INTO A MISTY FOG CLOUD. REALLY? Really Chapel Hill? You can't make this Homegrown Halloween initiative "cool" with special effects or rationalization. Limiting the growth of events like Halloween hurts the "Brand" of our Town and ultimately has a negative effect on our Local Economy.

It's happening right now. Today is also national coming out day. And President Obama gave a speech yesterday on the eve of this event. A busy weekend for gay rights.

National coming out day "is an internationally-observed civil awareness day for coming out and discussion about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues" (wikipedia). And today is also the day of the National Equality March which comes just as the Hate Crimes law (Matthew Sheppard Act) is about to be signed into law, and just before Congressional hearings on repealing DADT are going to take place.

http://www.ncpride.org

I'm sure everyone has seen the rainbow flags downtown, and in case you were wondering, it is pride weekend here in NC.  The biggest events were the speeches, festival, and parade over in Durham today, but it is something the whole triangle & to some degree the state gets into.  If you check out this site, you'll see events all over, including several in Chapel Hill.  It marks the 25th anniversary of this celebration.  There were speeches, festival grounds, food, vendors, booths, and lots of fun to be had.  I believe it is important to see this as not only a good time, but also as a large political rally with a positive message since this was the first NC Pride since prop 8 & the protests

[I read this entry by Chapel Hill Town Council Member Sally Greene on her blog and asked for permissionto cross-post it here. She graciously agreed. Tomorrow the Town will unveil the stone marker at Peace and Justice Plaza. =Ruby]

A little-known fact: grass used to grow around the flag pole in front of the old post office on Franklin Street. That's why those red brick pavers are there--as filler. It was only in latter times, probably since 1979 when the town purchased the property from the federal government, that the space was paved over.

Luckily for these four young men, it was grass during Holy Week in 1964 when they decided to fasten themselves to this place 24 hours a day, fasting in protest of the Town of Chapel Hill's refusal to pass a public accommodations ordinance.

Pat Cusick, LaVert Taylor, John Dunne, James Foushee (in the photo) and countless other activists will be remembered this Sunday at 3 p.m. as we unveil and formally dedicate the Peace and Justice tribute marker at the site we've named Peace and Justice Plaza.