I recently have been emailing with our local State House Representative - Houston Gaines- about character, integrity, and accountability. I did not vote for this young man to hold his position in our community and I would not recommend you do so either. I thought it would be worth sharing a bit about our communication here with folks hoping it would help shed light on some ideas worth exploring. I do not feel like it is appropriate to directly quote Mr. Gaines in this context because our communications were not intended to be public, but I do feel comfortable paraphrasing some of what he said and presenting my responses in full to get a better understanding what was shared.
To begin, I emailed Houston Gaines after receiving a letter in the mail about the candidate he is running against, Mokah Johnson . The letter was disgusting, it falsely accused Mokah of being a criminal and featured a grainy photo of her along with various other ignorant an unfounded attacks on her person character using various words shaped and formed to trigger the intended audience. I was so upset I decided I would write to Mr. Gaines, and to my surprise he responded personally, which leads us here. Houston wrote back saying that the mailers where not from his actual campaign (which they were not) and took no responsibility for them - although he did not apologize for or deny their content. Then he said that he and his campaign are not legally allowed to communicate with these entities, and that both sides were sending out negative mailers and that he sometimes gets ones about himself in his mailbox. This was my response:
“Houston,
Thanks for getting back in touch with me about this, I truly appreciate you taking the time to respond to my email and to acknowledge my concerns. I have tried to be thoughtful and prayerful in my response here to help meet you in a place of integrity and hopefully help you understand how I see this situation.
First, the mailer I received was in my mailbox the same day as the attached you emailed as you mentioned could be possible. I am looking at it now and it says it is paid for by the “Republicans State Leadership Committee-Georgia Independent Expenditure Committee”. It also has your website www.HOUSTONGAINES.com at the bottom of the mailer, and needless to say it has your photograph and information and I am positive you have seen the mailer in question. I am a local artist here that has public recognition as well and have a website that represents myself and my work as well (www.DavidHale.org), I must say that if I had individuals sending out material like this with my name, photo, and website I would be using all avenues I had available to disavow the message they were sending. I browsed through your social media accounts and your website and noticed there has not been any mention of these mailers or the information they contain. It does not seem too much to ask to just simply make a post concerning these mailers in particular accusations that Mokah is a criminal, which I am sure you know is a lie. I have taken to the time to learn about these accusations against Mokah and I hope you have taken the time to listen to her experiences and the effects those charges had on her and her life. I speak to you as a man of character as you claim to be and give you the benefit of the doubt here, it is not too difficult to simply be decent, compassionate, and understanding about this situation.
I am a Christian, and I am sure you know the story of Jesus Christ, He was a member of an oppressed minority, He was falsely accused of a crime, and then ended up being wrongfully executed for those crimes. I would say it is useful here to see some parallels to that story and the one we are living now and acknowledge the responsibility we have to support those in our community that were not born into the same privileged circumstance that you and I were. Perhaps you are not taking the time to be fully compassionate and considerate to the woman standing on the other side of you? Perhaps you have not taken the time to consider what it would be like if she were your sister, your mother, your daughter, or simply your friend?
I am not willing to accept any defense that “both sides” are participating in these activities; if you receive mailers about you as hateful as this one you should not good and well how hurtful and derogatory they are, and if they don’t make you feel that way they are not equivalent to what is being said about Mokah. If this is the case you should know this better than anyone and be in the best situation to address this honestly and openly. I have not personally received any negative or derogatory information about you at all, and if I did I would happily contact Mokah with similar complaints. I do not believe we fall on “sides” at all in this conversation, we are all members of the same community all seeking the well-being of our neighbors, friends, and family. You owe it to one of your neighbors, Mokah, to speak out against unjust accusations against a kind and caring member of our community. Whatever can be gained from your election is not worth sacrificing your personal integrity by avoiding this opportunity. Many of your constituents are in similar situations as Mokah with inaccurate and unnecessary criminal charges, and many of them are people of color that have to fight an upstream battle to simply have work and care for their families due to these circumstances. You and I are both in a position of power and with that comes a responsibility and that responsibility is to be humble and care for those who are not in the same positions of power as you and I. And divisive claims calling someone a “radical liberal” only paint a picture that you are a “radical conservative” and further wedge these divides between us. If you truly want to bridge this divide you should be making every effort to disavow claims like this, they are baseless and they don’t benefit you or anyone else in our community.
I am sure you know the people personally that are sending out these mailers with the connections you and your family have, and I am sure you can find a way to contact them through word of mouth. I am also sure you could stop them from being sent out if you wanted to. You could also just undercut them with your own words, you could use your public platform to defend Mokah- and you would if she was a member of your family. If you truly “Loved your Neighbor” you would not sit idle and let these false accusations happen and listen to Mokah having to defend herself against these attacks. It is wrong, and I trust that you are the type of person that can see that - and that is why I am taking the time away from my family to respond to you. I do not know why you are not doing what you can to stop these things and it is not right for me to assume. I believe that if we are truly to come together as a community and as a country it takes people on all sides of the political spectrum to just simply treat each other with decency and respect. You have an opportunity to do that here and be a public example, a Leader as you were elected to be, and stand up for someone who is being mistreated. You might be surprised how many people you represent are being mistreated in a similar manner as well, and they deserve that decency and respect. I truly believe you could empower and help people in a major way by just being kind and compassionate. If you truly believe in what you say, do your part to stop the divisiveness that is occuring in your name for your campaign.
It made me very angry to see that mailer, because it was hurtful to see Mokah being treated that way and not able to defend herself to all the people that get that piece of paper. It hurt especially because I have a bi-racial daughter and I see more and more every day that she is not being given an even and fair playing field in our community and country. If my dear daughter was brave and determined enough to be in the position Mokah is in right now, and I saw people treating her this way, I cannot imagine how hurt I would be. And if you knew my daughter and watched her grow, you would look at her and you would see Mokah too and you would know all the hurdles she had to clear to be who she is in this world, and you would not sit back and let this fly. I hope you can make the right choice here..
I will stand by my word and if I receive any negative and derogatory information about you I will contact Mokah in a similar manner.
Take Care,
David Hale”
I did not hear from Mr. Gaines for a week after that and I received another derogatory mailer. The intentions of these are blatantly obvious to paint Mokah as “other” - a technique used on her and her ancestors and all other oppressed minorities for longer than we should ever have allowed as human beings. Words that have been shaped and molded to act as chains and ropes and appendages of oppression, now one need only say or write “criminal" - “thug” - or “radical liberal” and the torches have been lit and the pitchforks have been brought out to crush the slave uprising. What was and is being done to Mokah is not at all different than what was done to Jesus Christ, and the outcome of that very story should make you aware of the consequences or our collective inaction against actions very much like these.
So I received another disgusting mailer about Mrs. Johnson, and so I wrote to Mr. Gaines again:
“Houston,
I received another mailer today attacking Mokah from the same Republican Committee, and still have yet to receive one of the mailers that is attacking you. I was hopeful you would respond to my previous email and consider condemning these mailers publicly. Since you are unwilling to do either I will be sharing my email with you publicly and will be doing a public funding campaign for Mokah in hopes of offsetting some of the unnecessary damage that is being done to her reputation in your name. I have never publicly backed a political candidate, but in this case I see it necessary. Your claims to bipartisanship and to character and integrity only reach as far as your actions. I hope you take time to really assess what you are sacrificing in a long life you have to lead and the paths and patterns you create for yourself and your community.
take care,
David”
So then Houston decided to respond, telling me again that it is against the law for him to communicate with these individuals and telling me about negative mailers that were sent out about him that Friday that a lot of folks apparently received. He also mentioned that his opponent had not condemned these mailers.
I will say here and now, I finally received some of these “negative” mailers about Houston because my wife is a registered independent voter. They were ABSOLUTELY and unequivocally not comparable to what was being sent out about Mokah. Houston Gaines is in a place of power and privilege because of his race in this country and the economic prosperity of his family that is tied to that racial designation. I do not think that this is “his fault” but it is his responsibility to identify that privilege and acknowledge that the attacks being levied against Mokah are directly related to her racial designation and the economic and social factors associated with this social and cultural marker. It is the responsibility of men like Houston Gaines and of men like myself to create a world that is more just and equitable to recognize the monumental responsibility we have to take accountability and act with true character and integrity to achieve this future world.
So here was my last response:
“Houston,
I understand very clearly that you cannot coordinate or speak to this group and that it is unlawful. You can though speak publicly on your social media platforms denouncing the clear lies and attacks being printed on these items to clear up the untruths printed in them, that I am now receiving daily to my home, as I got another today. If the mailers you are receiving about you and your campaign bother you and you wish that Mokah would say something about them, perhaps start by doing that yourself. You might be surprised by what happens. It is something we all have to do to bridge this gap of hate and animosity that is tearing us apart. I have taken the time to hear and read the words you are sharing on your campaign and they ring hollow when they do not have actual action. It takes individual action, in either direction, and you are in a place where you can have real and lasting effect either positive or negative.
I am not going to take any more of your time here, but I hope you really consider your actions without justifying them with wrongs being done to you by others. What you are describing is vengeance, and it will not create justice - ever. My heart will be filled with thankfulness, generosity, and hopefulness for our community if I happen to see just one post from you addressing this in the future.
All the best to you and yours!
David Hale”
