Archie Barringer is the good preacher who says all of us are God’s children.
All of us, he says, no matter who we are, where we come from, what we might believe, rich or poor or in between, and certainly the color of our skin.
Barringer is calling on Mayor Mitch Colvin, Mayor Pro Tem Johnny Dawkins and Fayetteville City Council members Kathy Keefe Jensen, Shakelya Ingram, Mario Benavente, D.J. Haire, Derrick Thompson, Brenda McNair, Courtney Banks-McLaughlin and Deno Hondros to lend an ear to his plea and prayer.
“Mr. Gorbachev, ‘Tear down this wall,’” Barringer writes in what the retired chaplain describes in his “Call for Unity” letter he plans to send to the mayor and the council. “Many of us will remember the date, time and place we were when former President Ronald Reagan issued this ultimatum. The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 and stood until Nov. 9, 1989, separating the communist East from the free West. It had torn Germany in half, separating families and friends, some of which would never see each other again.
“Transition with me now and fast forward some 60-plus years to Fayetteville, North Carolina.
“The date was May 30, 2020, when the Market House was set ablaze and engulfed in flames,” Barringer writes. “It was surrounded by an angry mob defiant and determined to burn it to the ground. However, today, it still stands encircled by the mottos ‘Black Lives Do Matter’ and ‘End Racism Now.’”
That was then, Barringer writes, referencing May 30, 2020, when protesters and provocateurs converged on the historic Market House in protest of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in an arrest and death that would polarize a nation. The Market House has long been a contentious landmark because enslaved Black people were sold there in the 1800s.
“That was then, and this is now,” Barringer writes about May 30, 2020. “It’s a new day. The smoke has dissipated and the structure has been repaired. But you can’t erase history, and even if we could, the ground would still be marked where the Market House once stood as a stark reminder of that atrocity. It appears the world has moved on from that fateful night, but we haven’t. It is what it is. A bell cannot be unrung. Although the world isn’t perfect, we can learn from our past, whereas, we will not be condemned to repeat it. Hopefully, we will never experience anything like it again. But the memory of it is seared into our minds and the annals of Fayetteville’s history.”
It was an ugly evening on May 30, 2020, when Market House windows were shattered to the tune of, according to the city, somewhere around $85,000. The landmark wasn’t set ablaze, per se, but the stairwell leading to the second floor was set on fire.
“No other reminders are necessary,” Barringer writes. “However, the slogans, which now encircle this controversial landmark, ‘Black Lives Do Matter’ and ‘End Racism Now,’ should be replaced with ‘All Lives Matter’ and ‘United We Stand.’ God still loves us all, regardless of our nationality or color of our skin. Jesus was neither Black nor white. As Ray Stevens sang, ‘red, yellow, black or white, we are all precious in his sight,’ because we were all created in the image of God, and he does not see color. We all make up the human race. This is what our U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights and Emancipation Proclamation are based upon. We are all part of the circle of life and a link in the chain of humanity. But a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. What happened in Fayetteville weakened the chain and should never be repeated again. Love conquers all, and that chain can and should be repaired and made even stronger.”
‘The right thing to do … for God’s sake’
Barringer says he is not attempting to be a rabble-rouser. Rather, he’s saying what he believes is for the good of all in the community.
“It will take effort on our part,” Barringer says. “The right thing to do is not always the easy thing to do. But it’s still the right thing to do. Just do it. With America’s greatest military installation here in our own backyard, we should seek to set the example of being that, ‘One nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.’ It is time we embrace the future, be emboldened by our past and put it into perspective. It is time to put our differences aside, come to the table of reconciliation and agree to disagree. This is what President Jimmy Carter did in the 1978 Peace Accord at Camp David between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. On Aug. 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. made an endearing and enduring plea from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for integration and unification that all Americans would be equal and our country would be united as one. And so did Jesus prior to his betrayal and crucifixion, talked humbly but forthrightly to his disciples at the Last Supper about their commitment to him and the hardships they would face.”
Barringer says there is no better place to bring unity in this community than perhaps the Market House. Already, it has been repurposed as an education center to chronicle its history and to include exhibits and a plaque noting its history.
“There, we can reconcile our differences and become the All-America City that has been bestowed upon us as our moniker and be proud of who we are,” writes Barringer, a retired Army chaplain and former chief of chaplain services at the Fayetteville VA Medical Center. “Do it for Fayetteville as an example to our country. Do it for our families that the word ‘discrimination’ may eventually be erased from our society. And, finally, for the future that we might all come to enjoy the equality and love that God has intended for all mankind. And, so, with that being said, Mr. Mayor and City Council members, for God’s sake, ‘tear down this wall of words’ that we might all come to live together in the peace and harmony that God has intended for all mankind.”
Epilogue
Archie Barringer says he plans to send his letter to the mayor, the mayor pro tem and the City Council, and that he hopes his plea will not fall on deaf ears at City Hall. And, Archie Barringer says, if need be, he will plead what he believes at a City Council public forum. He’ll likely receive some pushback on Facebook and social media. But what Archie Barringer writes is what many in this city have been thinking all along, but were afraid to say it.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
