“We have a problem with our n******”

“We have a problem with our n******”, said ole Clark E, Spence.

I was at the Central Pennsylvania Republican Caucus lunch at the Republican State Committee meeting in the mid-1980s. I was not even a member yet, I was carrying my county chairman Jim Keher’s proxy. There I was at a table of 8 facing Adams County Republican Chairman Clark Spence as he spouted racist nonsense.

I was still in my twenties but I looked Clark square in the eye and said “Maybe you would have less trouble if you stopped calling them N******. We do very well in our black wards”.

With a wry smile Clark said, “What do we have here, a N****** Lover?”

Well it all went downhill from there. I returned as a voting member the next quarter and first thing I did was run against Clark Spence for Secretary of the Central Pennsylvania Republican Caucus. Clark was a grey haired Apple farmer from Orrianna near Gettysburg near Perry County. He beat me in the Caucasus Secretary race and we never spoke again. God sent Clark to his eternal consequences not long afterward.

I lost a few “friends” in the fight with Spence but I made far more and certainly a better class of friends by standing up for what I believe in. Over the years I had to leave the Republican Party because it was drifting in a direction where Clark Spence was not the exception he was the norm. I am far from perfect and am content to be who I am.

I hope I do not offend anyone. But racism is ugly and putting a bow on it won't make it better.