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Sharon Amos
Carl Blackmon (Hue [Fortson] and Sharon) 19/7/78
-(on the phone he had said he can’t write one side and not the other and would have to meet with some people and see how to handle it said some high level people have probably gotten material if he did and they’ll have to meet and then will contact us)
-he wants to see for himself but can’t do so until after the referendum
-I talked about not dignifying lies
-he did say he could seeit was an attack on Guyana not just on PT
-today he said that he could see that it might not be a good idea to print the stuff when people are not even aware of it now (I think he’s talked to someone because of what he said, maybe Mingo because this doesn’t sound like Carl’s view – but when I asked him he said he hadn’t talked to anyone except that he had talked to Shirley Field-Ridley some time ago when we were going to seeher with Marcie and she said she wasn’t opposed to an article but that it shouldn’t just be our testimonial type thing
-he said for his peace of mind he’d like to get a rough idea of what goes on there
-he said it needs to be a coordinated effort of the govt. and news
-he said that he heard we are doing a good job with agriculture – a Larry London flies in with the army and said he was amazed to see the progress of agriculture, but he said this whole thing goes deeper
-I talked about the fact that some people can’t believe that people will be productive without fences or some kind of harsh discipline but that only reveals that some people will only work for profit and aren’t used to cooperative life and so they can only project their own motives
-I mentioned that Hue had just come in from the project and Hue talked about how much he enjoyed it there
-he said that there should be a senior person from GIS (Guyana Infomation Service – Ministry of Info) and 2 from Guyana Chronicle and there could be someone from the radio
-he asked if we had thought of asking someone from Guyana Councel of Churches / I mentioned our concern because of the position the GCC had taken on the ref/ I said that Hewley Hinds was very friendly and wanted to come/ he said yes but you night even ask the Bishop of Starbrook (I think he particularly has been against the ref) – we said we could look into it but we don’t want to be devisive with the govt.
-he said we should call Shirley Field-Ridley or we could talk to Hutton Archer (Hutton is the one that called me when the National Enquirer Reporters were talking to him and he asked me if they could come and visit Jonestown later called him back as per instruction and told him that
it was the wish of the govt that they not stay etc.
-I asked if he could call Shirley and arrange it, he said he would
-he did say “what if we find something real bad up there?” I said that if he finds something real bad up there we certainly would want something done about it but that he has to see it in the context of what is being done to smear, indict ruin black elected officials and socialists/ Hue and I talked about Brooks, the elected official in SF accused of stealing from parking meters, Barbara Jordan, Huey Newton, Wilford Burchette etc.
-he agreed by the way that denials of negatives are difficult and agreed when we said that it puts things in people’s minds and then you have to spend time refuting it when you could be productive instead and that some people will believe anything in print
-I mentioned how we had helped on the referendum and that now is a time for unity of people working together as they are using the same tactis against us as they are against Guyana, accusing Guyana of denying human rights – he agreed
-he said that he had to stop his children from interrogating Liane tho (over)
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but that she shouldn’t take it personally, they are a wild bunch, he said and do that to him too. He did say that a couple of them had defended her. I said it was just that they were all questioning her at once and it wasn’t exactly an interchange but we always enjoy talking to him as he is very reasonable to talk to