Monday, June 04, 2018

Religious leaders to demand HOC convey Moses African Cemetery to Macedonia Baptist Church

Local religious leaders will descend on the monthly meeting of the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission this Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at 4:00 PM to demand commissioners convey the Moses African Cemetery on the Westwood Tower property in Bethesda to Macedonia Baptist Church. The HOC acquired the property and desecrated cemetery for $20.5 million in January.

Leaders scheduled to appear include the Rev. Katie Romano Griffin of Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church, the Rev. Claire Matheny of St. Paul's United Methodist Church, and the Rev. Segun Adebayo, pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington will send statements to be read into the record, and Muslim imams will reportedly participate in the event, as well.

About 500 people are buried in the historic cemetery, which was desecrated during the construction of Westwood Tower in the late 1960s, and then paved over with a parking lot. The HOC headquarters is located at 10400 Detrick Avenue in Kensington.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Moving any remains to the grounds of Macedonia BC sounds like a great idea.

Anonymous said...

demanding land. sure..... ok. Buzz off MBC! You're a bunch of pathetic carpet baggers.

Anonymous said...

So will the bodies that were illegally removed from Fort Reno Park be restored to their original graves?

Anna said...

Reminder:

Step one:
Find out if there are actually, prove-ably, human remains at the site.

Step two:
Everything else.

Anonymous said...

Anna @5:53:

The Church repeatedly asked for an archaeological investigation of the site. The Church also repeatedly asked for permission to bring cadaver sniffing dogs on to the property (completely unobtrusive and less expensive, too). Either method would confirm the presence of bodies. BUT, HOC has refused permission for these methods.

So, get involved and solve the problem since you seem prone to "advice" giving. What are you doing to prove human remains on the site? Nothing.

Anyway, it is a known cemetery site, even if the exact parameters and exact location of bodies are lacking.

Anonymous said...

These are the same fools who left the discussion table when they don't get their way or demands. Their policy is "our way or nothing." It doesn't work that way and if they want control, they should purchase the land legally.

Anna said...

6:09AM You're right. I'm doing nothing. That's my prerogative. I don't get involved in causes I don't support.
But because you're being flippant, I'll let you in on a little secret....I sent the same message to the County council and the HOC starting way back when this first came up.

Anonymous said...

Why did the original cemetery owners not move the bodies when they sold the property? Why do they expect to given the land for free now even if they somehow forgot to move the bodies? Why does ereryone not see that this is simply an act of NIMBYism to block development. Maybe if they start digging, they might find some endangered shrimp graves as well.

Anonymous said...

Funny thing, when I went post the previos comment, I was asked to prove that I was not a robot, and up popped an image of the HOC parking lot and I was asked to click on photos of gravestones. I picked “none” and my message was posted. Problem solved.

Boyce Bowles said...

Despite the harassment from anonymous trolls (Regency Centers PR team, MoCo Planning or Council staff?) Dyer has been steadfast in supporting the Church and respect for these freed slaves buried on the site.

Robert Dyer said...

6:21: It wasn't the church that left the table, it was HOC. Then the Montgomery County mediator canceled the mediation.

Anna said...

BoBo, you're just as anonymous as everyone else.

To your thinking, harassment appears to mean having a different opinion and voicing it

I don't think anyone posting here is intent on disrespecting the freed slaves or their community, although you keep pushing that false narrative to make others look bad. There's only a difference in opinion of how to go forward.

Anna said...

You claim to be all about Bethesda, yet you delete a mention of a Bethesda Facebook page, that many in Bethesda would love, so they could either remember or learn about this wonderful place called Bethesda. Why would you do this?.

Anonymous said...

Bob the Builder said "500 people are buried..."

#FAKENEWS

When will people like Dyer "DEMAND" that these "religious institutions" pay their fair share of taxes?

Baloney Concrete said...

Anna,

Thank you for the reminder about the old Bethesda photos. I recently came across another site you might be interested in, if you spend much time around Gaithersburg: http://www.gaithersburghistory.com/photos.html

Lots of neat "then & now" photos.

Boyce Bowles said...

8:02 AM you've just posted a raft of harassing comments (again).

Anna said...

BoBo, it's a public site with open commenting. Go cry somewhere else.

PS, deleting all the comments in between is all on you..er..er..Dyer - trying to control the narrative.

Anna said...

8:40AM - seriously? You gotta be kidding me. Unfricking believably thin-skinned and petty.
#dumbfounded

Anonymous said...

Daily reminder: the land that is host to the alleged cemetery was owned by a black benevolent society and sold fair and square about 50 years ago. The church should take up their claim with the original seller, not the most recent owner.

Imagine if you bought your house, then a few months later some people show up demanding you hand over the land to them, because someone else sold the land years ago. How would that be fair?

We have property ownership and landowners' rights. Let's respect those.

Anonymous said...

Marsha Coleman-Adebayo is from Detroit. Her husband, Segun Adebayo, is from Nigeria.

Coleman-Adebayo is a senior leader in the Green Party, which helped sabotage the presidential elections of 2000 and 2016:

"As of April 2015, Marsha Coleman-Adebayo serves on the Green Shadow Cabinet of the United States as 'Director of Governmental Transparency and Accountability'.

"In June 2015, Coleman-Adebayo endorsed Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein while speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C."

Anonymous said...

Dyer keeps deleting all references to that wonderful FB group, because he and his brother were banned from there for spamming his articles there. And he keeps deleting any mention of this fact.

Anonymous said...

"Imagine if you bought your house, then a few months later some people show up demanding you hand over the land to them, because someone else sold the land years ago."

I WOULD FEEL EXACTLY LIKE A PALESTINIAN!!!

Robert Dyer said...

3:01: I haven't been banned from any Facebook group, dumbass. I can post there anytime I want. The commenter who mentioned your similarity to the guy who harassed the police officer was right on point - Hope you look good in orange.

Anna said...

Rule #77 - No thanking allowed. All forms of graciousness will be eliminated.

Anonymous said...

@3:40 AM: You used to make good comments on this site but recently you've gone off the rails.

On topic, it's hard to imagine what HOC could have done to make this situation worse. HOC is basically the county government. The Planning Commission is the county government. The government is the people. Yet the county council thought it necessary to bring in a mediator. That is an indictment of the Planning Commission and HOC.

Montgomery County government used to be good at these things. It's hard to imagine this going this way 30 or even 20 years ago. What happened? Who retired? Can we get them back?

Anna said...

9:52AM - Thank you for your comment. I'll work on keeping my frustrations in check.

My thoughts are that there's too much division in the county. Ignoring the forest for the trees. Not only here but across the country too, the needs are outpacing the revenues. But the solution isn't raising taxes. Honesty would help. The recession set not just people back, but set local governments back and borrowing was the only way to go.

As with the Federal government, a larger portion of income is going to debt payments. The difference, of course, being we can't run a deficit like the Feds do, so services get cut.

A cohesive plan for the entire county would be a start, and would stop pitting one area against the other. Creating opportunities from the bottom up might be better than that damn trickle-down economics that never works for the 99%.

We shifted from a mostly tangible-assets-based economy to a mostly intangible-assets-based economy decades ago. Fundamental implication: Scarcity doesn’t apply to intangibles like tangibles: A basic premise of conventional economics is as up-to-date as bloodletting in medicine.

Sheesh...look at me rambling on and on.

Thanks for your critique.

Roald said...

I have a radical idea: why doesn't the planning board and council listen to what Bethesda residents actually want in the sector plan?