Senator Sessions' "leadership and compassion"

As the media continue their ideologically driven campaign against President-elect Trump (thinly disguised as journalism), a target of choice has been the men and women selected for Cabinet posts. Among these is Senator Jeff Sessions, Trump’s choice for attorney general.

I have known and worked with Senator Sessions for more than 15 years and know firsthand that his leadership, his compassion, and his actions to uplift “the least among us” far outweigh the weak allegations brought against him. I first met Senator S

I first met Senator Sessions in 2001, when Catherine Flowers, a community leader who was working to salvage her community in rural Alabama that was in crisis, came to my office at the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise (CNE) to ask for help. The most pressing issue was that 37 families were under threat of arrest or eviction after they were cited for violations of health regulations, when it was found that raw sewage was flowing above ground. The residents, even more than the authorities, wanted a solution for the problem, which threatened their well-being and their children’s health. But for a community where the average income was $20,000, the poverty rate was above 30 percent, and families lived in dilapidated trailers, the $12,000 required to install septic tanks was hopelessly beyond reach.

Flowers lived in Lowndes County, the site of 43 miles of the 54-mile 1965 voting-rights march from Selma to Montgomery. For the past 50 years, purported spokespersons of the black community have conducted annual parades along the route to commemorate the march. But it seemed that they never looked left or right to witness the poverty that surrounded them. They certainly made no effort to alleviate it. In addition to the crisis of waste disposal, there were no public recreation facilities for youth and no public libraries, and the county’s schools were heated by dust-spewing coal furnaces and lacked wiring sufficient to support computers and Internet access. With virtually no manufacturing and economic development in the area, employment opportunities were dismal. Yet, at the end of each annual parade, the leaders typically returned to their speaking engagements and comfortable offices, putting thoughts of Lowndes County aside until the following year. Many of them would be among the cohort to rail against Senator Sessions’s recent nomination for AG. Yet, where they did nothing, Sessions was the one who took action to marshal support to revitalize the desolate community.

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