Finally, Geoffrey A. Davis, brother of the late Brooklyn Councilmember James E. Davis has weighed in on this matter. In the Summer of 2003 Davis' brother was murdered, shot to death, inside City Hall during a Stated Meeting. Speaking to reporters he had said, "For her to have uttered such a statement only yards away from where my brother, the late Hon. James E. Davis, was murdered is heartbreaking. Our community leaders have a responsibility to the people that elected them to act in a more sensible and loving manner. It is my hope that my friend, Charles Barron, can explain to my family and I how Ms. Plummer’s use of the word ‘assassination’ in City Hall can be justified.” Good question....

So, in this writer's view, the fallout from the Sonny Carson street renaming fight has been blown all out of proportion. The renaming of four Blocks along Gates Avenue in Brooklyn, to Sonny Carson Way, would not have brought about revolutionary change in New York. It would not have fostered better education for the City's youth, created affordable housing to the working class, nor brought about safer streets for the city's residents. It is, at best, symbolism of a questionable and, controversial New York character who made a mark on the city, for better or worse. Many so-called 'respectable' leaders and public persons, including activist leaders such as the Reverends Herbert Daughtry and Conrad Tillard, had supported the call for the street name change. Such voices did add to the mix of what should have been a calmer and, more level-headed discussion over the Carson legacy.

I had met Sonny Carson over the years numerous times but, never socially. Those meetings were always on a professional level as interviewer and subject. I don't know what it was like to walk in his shoes but, his life did touch hundreds in ways that did make a positive difference to the city as well. While I may have had disagreements with him on a number of public stances on controversial subjects, those disagreements did get me to think and look at my own life. Other times and other issues surrounding Sonny Carson not only raised my eyebrows but, at times, did bring me to the point of revulsion. Such as, what were the issues surrounding his 1974 conviction in a kidnapping case that led to the murder of one of the kidnapped people in that strange and twisted case? The book and movie bearing the same title "THE EDUCATION OF SONNY CARSON," gives some insight. Somehow, I get the feeling this subject is not quite dead yet. The same kind of revulsion extended to Sonny Carson on Wednesday, it could be argued, was not unlike that extended to Malcolm X in the early years following his death. Today, there are schools, by-ways, a street in Harlem and, a U.S. Postage stamp bearing his name and image. That was unthinkable in 1969, four years after his death. With that I get the feeling, once the heat and passion cools from these past days, that we will hear of other Carson initiatives. I do not support the dismissle of Viola Plummer from her job as an aide to Council member Barron. Yet, Ms. Plummer should learn to cool her jets, regroup and, pick up the pieces when an event has results not to her liking. Also, we have not heard the last of the December 12th Movement, on this subject, either. Stay tuned....