‘THANK YOU FOR YOUR VIGILANCE’

Rhode Island House of Representatives Honors the Memory of Lyndon LaRouche

March 31—The Rhode Island House of Representatives voted on March 26 to express its condolences at the passing of Lyndon LaRouche. Rep. Justin Price rose from his desk and said:

Mr. Lyndon LaRouche, who basically was a political prisoner and jailed some 30-odd years ago . . . passed away Feb. 12. Unfortunately for him, his vilification from the media and the political long arm left him in jail . . . so, God rest his soul.

I’d just like to recognize Cloret Carl up in the balcony there. She’s from the Schiller Institute, representing the Ad Hoc Committee to Exonerate Lyndon LaRouche, and this young lady has been friends with Lyndon LaRouche for 47 years and advocates for him still to this day. I would just like to acknowledge her being here . . . saying thank you for your vigilance on what you’re doing . . . thank you Cloret, thank you.

The proceedings were live-streamed.

The “House Resolution Expressing Condolences” was approved by the legislators and the House adjourned in memory of Lt. Anthony Sisco, Jr., Francis Sisco, Robert L. Kinney, and Lyndon LaRouche, followed by a moment of silence.

Cloret Carl Ferguson, who initiated this process, spoke with EIR about the activities of the Ad Hoc Committee to Exonerate Lyndon LaRouche. She told us that she has been in contact with many people and decided to speak with Representatives at the State Legislatures of Massachusetts and Rhode Island about exonerating LaRouche.

In noting the “poetic truth and power” of what happened on March 26, she said:

I don’t know if your readers know this, but the Rhode Island Dome, the dome over the Rhode Island State House, is modeled on the marble dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and it’s one of three such domes, that I know of, modeled after St. Peter’s Basilica. When I think of St. Peter’s Basilica, I think of the fresco by Rafael, known as the “Liberation of St. Peter,” depicting St. Peter being liberated by an angel while his guards are asleep.

There is a beautiful irony here, in that this dome of the Rhode Island Legislature is modeled after the Basilica. Another of these great marble domes modeled after St. Peter’s Basilica is the one over the Minnesota State House. Minnesota is where LaRouche was unjustly incarcerated. There is a poetic truth that rings through, given that LaRouche was incarcerated in Minnesota.

In the Rhode Island legislature, I was happy to experience the workings of a group of legislators focussed on the idea that the people’s well-being should be placed above all other concerns. It is fitting that they honored LaRouche, an individual of international significance, who in his life’s work, embodies the idea of always trying to foster the divine spark of human beings. This is the idea embodied in our Constitution and in our republic.

The Day’s Events and Beyond

Ferguson said that she stayed through the day’s legislative session at the urging of Representative Price, who recognized her presence in the gallery from the floor, noting that she was part of an organized effort to clear LaRouche’s name. He referenced the Schiller Institute and the decades of work for LaRouche’s policies. The representatives all stood up and applauded. She vividly described her reaction:

It was quite strange to me! Not because it wasn’t right to do, but because I had never experienced that type of situation before, where people I don’t know, or an elected body of people, would respond in that way to someone trying to right a wrong. The sense was clear, that if someone had been working so hard for justice for an individual, then that individual must have been an incredible person.

Representatives of the Ad Hoc Committee are contacting other state legislatures, and prominent people of courage and integrity internationally—lawyers and writers, other prominent individuals—with a mission to make clear that removing the tarnish of this unjust act on America’s legacy—America’s image, is more critical than ever.

We have to contact everybody, people who don’t know LaRouche, as well as those who do. They should all be given the opportunity to clear the name of our country—and to free themselves! Because they are in jail! They are the slaves, not LaRouche. By explaining and getting people to think about LaRouche’s life work, that’s going to help them understand that the solution rests with them. LaRouche could have run away; he could have gone somewhere else, but he did not.

Many who have heard about the March 26 motion to honor LaRouche are very happy, but not surprised, by what Rhode Island did. Ferguson reflected on the “sea change” unfolding:

There’s a clear sense that this should be done. It captures the spirit of the time we’re in. People are realizing that they are now free to say what’s on their minds. In the wake of the Mueller Report’s showing no collusion between Russia and Donald Trump or his Campaign to affect the outcome of the 2016 election, and in the wake of the progress of the New Silk Road, freedom of speech is returning to our United States.

Ferguson noted the surprise of some, to meet an African-American woman who had been a friend of LaRouche and an advocate for his policies for 47 years. One of the newspaper editors to whom she had written a letter concerning the urgent necessity of exonerating LaRouche, called to tell her that he was going to run her letter, saying that she had said something important, and it should be heard by his readers. She explained:

The point I made which impressed him is that even if I weren’t African American, which I am, I still would be fighting for this man, because he represented everyone, not just some particular group. He was, as Friedrich Schiller said, a World Citizen, and that idea, for someone of color to fight for this, is important for people to see. Because LaRouche has been so slandered in the press, they don’t expect it. It angered me then and it angers me to this day, over a month after his passing, that the press says these disgusting lies about LaRouche’s character. Because I, as a personal friend, have known him to represent everybody; that he tried to bring out the best in everyone. That is what my whole interaction with him for 47 years was about, personally and professionally. And I think that’s what surprised some of these individuals and elected officials in Rhode Island—that a person of color has represented LaRouche’s policies all these years, and still does.

In the 1990s, hundreds of state legislators called for Lyndon LaRouche to be released from prison and for his exoneration. LaRouche supporters brought the LaRouche case to city councils, to trade unions, to civil rights organizations, and to all sorts of civic and religious groups. Ferguson said that at that time,

along with other LaRouche activists, Pastor Roberts, who was then a very active LaRouche citizen-candidate, and I went to testify before the Newark Municipal Council. We were told they didn’t want to hear from our official representative, saying, “No, we want you and her to talk.” So, without preparation, Pastor Roberts and I had to say why we were there representing LaRouche. I remember one of the Councilmen who signed our petition asked me, “What does this man mean to you? Why are you doing this?” I just told him what I just said to you.

Ferguson closed our discussion with these words: “I was just the medium. I was there at the right time and the right place.” When she first spoke to Rep. Price several months ago, he told her that he knew about Lyndon LaRouche, that he had met LaRouche organizers in Rhode Island, organizing the public:

He met us doing what we always do, what only LaRouche people do, which is set up a table on the side of the road and talk to people about what they need to know to become real citizens and what they therefore need to do. It’s important to say, here, that it wasn’t me that made it happen. There is a process unfolding, the direction of things from our interaction that day—my interaction with him and the state house proceedings—it was the right time and the right place, and he did what was right.