Washington, D.C
The Whitmires are going to Washington
This is an opinion column.
Sometimes, the universe winks.
From above me came a noise I had heard only in movies — a shrill high-pitched announcement alerting onlookers below that the show was on.
“Here I am!” it seemed to say.
It couldn’t be, could it? Here? Now? No, way! But then I looked up, and there it was.
“Is that a %#*ing eagle?” I said, hoping someone nearby would tell me I wasn’t the only one seeing this.
And not just any old eagle, but a bald eagle coasting on the wind high above the U.S. Capitol.
It was the first time in my life I had seen one. And that it should happen the first time in my life I set foot in that place seemed a little too on the nose. Perhaps I was still in my hotel bed and didn’t know it, sleeping through the hearing I was there to cover.
I tried to take a picture of the thing. I captured a tiny silhouette — enough to show folks back home I hadn’t made this up — and then it glided away.
Well, that was weird, I thought.
I went back to the business I was there for, but I never quite put that bird out of my mind. I’ve had a feeling ever since then I would be going back there someday to look for it.
As it turns out, someday will be early next year.
Recently, my wife accepted a job in D.C. We’re packing our things and tidying up our home for someone else to live in. The Whitmires are going to Washington.
This, however, is not goodbye.
Beginning in January, I’ll be what we’re calling the Washington watchdog columnist.
But I’ll be leaving the place I’ve called home since I was six months old.
Alabamian for life
Where are you from? In the South, that question means three things.
- Where were you born?
- Where did you grow up?
- Where do you live?
I was born in Georgia — a fact my mother reminded me of every time Alabama acted out in some embarrassing, national-news sort of way.
I grew up in Thomasville, Ala., where my family moved when I was three. It was two hours from the nearest movie-plex and a great place to do a lot of reading.
Nearly 30 years ago, I moved to Birmingham to attend a small college that sadly no longer exists. This city is where I met my wife. It’s where my children were born. It’s where I covered the mad foibles of a lunatic mayor and chronicled the once-largest municipal bankruptcy in the history of the United States. And it’s from here that I watched the poisonous politics of my home state seep into the national bloodstream.
Alabama has been good to me, although not so much for others. I’ll be sad to leave it.
Alabama has been and always will be my home.
Alabamafication of D.C.
There’s a great change happening in our nation — that thing I’ve nicknamed the Alabamafication of America. The epicenter of that shift, however, was never Montgomery, but Washington, D.C.
Hating on Washington has become a national pastime and a gimmick charlatans use to win public trust they never earned. What George Wallace started, long before I was born, now threatens our national character, our stability and our standing in the world. When a president-elect chooses a Fox News TV personality to lead the Defense Department, you know something has gone an Alabama sort of way. When Matt Gaetz could be our next attorney general or Tulsi Gabbard the director of national intelligence, the universe isn’t winking anymore. It’s pulling the fire alarm.
My wife and I made the decision to move to D.C. before we knew the outcome of the election, and since then, friends have asked if we were certain this was the right thing for us. I’ve never been more certain of anything.
If someone is going to cover the Alabamafication of America, who else but an Alabamian?
There, I will follow around Alabama’s elected officials, sit through their meetings, get my nose up in their business, and let folks back home know what they’re up to. What I once did at Birmingham City Hall, and then did for Alabama state lawmakers, I’ll do on Capitol Hill.
Alabama has prepared me for this as only she could. For that and so much more, I am grateful.
I’m excited to explore, examine and report back what I see there — not writing about Washington for Washington, but for Alabamians.
And just maybe, I’ll find that damn bird.
Washington, D.C
New mural dedicated to DC’s ‘Mayor for Life’ honors career, contributions of Marion Barry – WTOP News
Ten years to the day after his death, D.C. leaders honored the life of the late Mayor Marion Barry with a new mural hanging in his namesake building.
(WTOP/Luke Lukert)
WTOP/Luke Lukert
(WTOP/Luke Lukert)
WTOP/Luke Lukert
(WTOP/Luke Lukert)
WTOP/Luke Lukert
(WTOP/Luke Lukert)
WTOP/Luke Lukert
Ten years to the day after his death, D.C. leaders honored the life of the late Mayor Marion Barry with a new mural hanging in his namesake building.
Mayor Muriel Bowser joined the former D.C. First Lady at the Marion S. Barry, Jr. Building in Judiciary Square on Saturday to pull the curtain down, revealing the new mural dedicated to the “Mayor for Life.”
“My husband really loved Washington, DC and its residents. The mural captures some of the major contributions he made to the City, and some of the people who worked with him to help build the City and empower its residents,” said Cora Masters Barry, Barry’s widow, in a statement.
“I was thrilled that so many residents and visitors were able to join us on this inspirational, entertaining, educational, and historical day, as we honored a man, Marion Barry Jr., whose legacy and love of this city was so deep and strong.”
The mural is broken into three parts, each with a different title and focusing on a different aspect of Barry’s life.
The first panel, titled “Big Vision,” displays Barry’s early years as a civil rights activist and his transition into politics.
The center panel, “Big Impact,” then focuses on his time in office as a Councilmember and four term mayor.
These sections emphasize Barry’s support for Black-owned businesses, summer jobs for youth, programs for seniors and leadership opportunities for women.
The last section of the mural is titled ”Big Legacy.” It highlights the influence Barry still has on the city — showcasing advocacy against apartheid, support for the Million Man March, contributions to the development of the MCI Center, and his work with the DC Control Board.
The many pictures show Barry beside the likes of President Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr.
Another focus of this panel is Barry’s political comeback after a high-profile arrest and conviction on crack cocaine possession charges in 1990. Four years later, he returned to the Mayor’s office after a commanding primary run.
“He told me a lot of things, and he taught us a lot of things, but one of the biggest ones was if you get knocked down, you get back up,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser at the unveiling.
Nabeeh Bilal, an artist based in Ward 8, created the mural.
“You’ll notice that there is not a single solo image of Marion Barry, and that’s because, with his accomplishments and achievements, it was always about others,” Bilal said.
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Friday’s event will begin with a solemn Mass celebrated by Cardinal Wilton Gregory, archbishop of Washington, followed by an opportunity to venerate the relics.
The major relics of St. Thomas Aquinas, “The Angelic Doctor,” are on tour and scheduled to make a stop in Washington, D.C., next weekend as part of the commemoration of the 700th anniversary of his canonization.
Members of the faithful will be able to venerate the relics, including his skull, on two separate occasions: first at St. Dominic’s Church on Friday, Nov. 29, and then again on Saturday, Nov. 30, at the Dominican House of Studies. The event is co-sponsored by the Thomistic Institute.
“In a time of renewed interest in the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, the jubilees of his canonization (700 years in 2023), death (750 years in 2024), and birth (800 years in 2025) draw our attention to the masterwork of wisdom and sanctity which God wrought in him,” Dominican Father Gregory Pine, assistant director at the Thomistic Institute, said in a press release.
“The opportunity that we have to receive and venerate his relics makes this grace all the more proximate and precious to us,” Father Pine added.
Friday’s event will begin at 12:10 p.m. with a solemn Mass celebrated by Cardinal Wilton Gregory, archbishop of Washington, followed by an opportunity to venerate the relics of the revered theologian and philosopher from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. There will also be solemn vespers at 5:30 p.m. and night prayer at 6:45 p.m. with a Marian procession to follow.
On Saturday, the Dominican House of Studies will begin the day with solemn lauds and a votive Mass of St. Thomas Aquinas at 7:30 a.m., and veneration of the relics will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pine will also preach at 3 p.m. that day.
“‘Get wisdom, get understanding’ (Prv 4:5). One way is to study, another way is to pray for it, but an exceptional way is to pray for it in the presence of the skull of St. Thomas Aquinas,” Dominican Father James Brent, an assistant professor of philosophy at the Dominican House of Studies, also stated in the release.
The relic of St. Thomas Aquinas’ skull comes to the U.S. from the Dominicans in Toulouse, France, and is one of two skulls Church officials claim to have belonged to the 11th-century saint. The other is housed in the Italian city of Priverno. The Dominicans in France commissioned a new reliquary for the skull last year to celebrate the saint’s canonization anniversary.
After Aquinas’ death in 1274, his body was kept in Fossanova Abbey in Priverno until 1369, when his relics were moved to Toulouse, a city in southwestern France, where the Order of Preachers was established. Aquinas’ tomb rests in the Church of the Jacobins.
Researchers are currently weighing the possibility of conducting an in-depth forensic analysis of both skulls to determine their authenticity.
Where do the relics go next?
After two stops in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 29 and Nov. 30, Aquinas’ relics hit the road for their U.S. tour:
Charlottesville, Virginia: St. Thomas Aquinas on Dec. 2
Providence, Rhode Island: Providence College on Dec. 4
Cincinnati: St. Gertrude Priory on Dec. 6
Columbus, Ohio: St. Patrick Priory on Dec. 7–8
Louisville, Kentucky: St. Louis Bertrand on Dec. 10
Springfield, Kentucky: St. Rose Priory on Dec. 12
New York City: St. Vincent Ferrer on Dec. 14
Philadelphia: St. Patrick on Dec. 16
Baltimore: Sts. Philip and James on Dec. 18
Two brothers who spent decades in prison after being convicted of a 1984 murder in Washington, D.C., they say they did not commit, are seeking a presidential pardon.
Charles and Chris Turner were convicted as teenagers for the killing of Catherine Fuller in Northeast Washington, D.C. near the intersection of 8th and H Street, Fox 5 DC reported.
They have since been released and are fighting for a pardon that would help restore their rights.
“With the pardon, we get a chance to fix all that and bring a closure to this case once and for all,” Chris Turner told Fox 5 DC.
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Charles and Chris Turner were convicted as teenagers for the killing of Catherine Fuller in Northeast Washington, D.C. near the intersection of 8th and H Street. (iStock)
After decades in custody for a crime which they did not commit, the brothers maintain a positive view on the future and the impact they can have moving forward, stressing that they will not allow their case to mentally hold them back.
“People get upset more that we’re not bitter,” Chris Turner said. “We think if you remain bitter, remain upset about what occurred – even though it was an atrocity and it was injustice – that you stay locked up mentally.”
The case revealed allegations of suppressed evidence, coerced testimony and investigative errors.
Seventeen people were arrested in connection with Fuller’s murder, with eight ultimately convicted, according to Fox 5 DC. The six who are still alive all maintain their innocence after collectively serving more than 200 years behind bars.
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The Turner brothers have become involved in their community and remain hopeful about their futures, although limitations in areas such as career prospects remain due to their felony records.
“We’ve actually said we might join the police force if we didn’t have this on our record … I used to want to be in the Navy. I can’t serve my country because I have a record,” Charles Turner said.
The brothers’ fight for a pardon represents a crucial step in restoring their reputation and rights lost in the convictions.
The case revealed allegations of suppressed evidence, coerced testimony and investigative errors. (iStock)
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Charles Turner said he believes a pardon would bring validation to himself and the other five convicted men, as well as to his family, friends and others who have supported him.
“It would also validate – help to validate – what they know, not what they believe, but what they know. There’s a big difference there,” he said.
Most presidential pardons have been granted between Election Day and Inauguration Day.
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