Senator's grandson found dead at Clemson fraternity

The local gossip this morning is all about Senator Garrison's grandson, Benjamin Garrison Sprague, found dead on a futon at Clemson fraternity Sigma Nu.

Clemson freshman's body found at fraternity

Autopsy today on Greenville High grad, grandson of longtime lawmaker

Monday, December 10, 2007
By Paul Alongi
STAFF WRITER, Greenville News

An autopsy is expected to be performed today on the body of a Clemson University freshman who was found Sunday morning at an off-campus fraternity house.

The body of Benjamin Garrison Sprague was found lying on a futon at Sigma Nu near Seneca at 7:40 a.m. Sunday, according to Oconee County Coroner Karl Addis.

Srague was a Greenville High graduate and the grandson of longtime state legislator T. Ed Garrison.

Addis said Sprague, a Sigma Nu member, attended a party at the fraternity house Saturday.

Sprague, 18, was the grandson of Garrison, a Democratic state representative and senator from 1959 to 1987.

He was a general engineering major who graduated from Greenville High earlier this year and played center for the Red Raiders' football team, said family friend Jeff Dezen.

"Ben is one of the most brilliant, loving, kind young men I have ever known," Dezen said, "and I have known him since he was a little boy."

Fox News Carolina reported last night that there were no signs of a struggle. They also initially reported that Sprague had just pledged the frat within the past week, although that fact seems to have been dropped down the memory hole in both news account I read today. Alcohol poisoning?

Sprague comes from a prominent family, and this story has that telltale Pat Conroy vibe. What really happened? Will we ever know?

Clemson placed Sigma Nu on interim suspension, pending an investigation by its Office of Community and Ethical Standards, Denny said. Sigma Nu's executive director in Lexington, Va., couldn't be reached for comment.

The Oconee Sheriff's Office is also investigating Sprague's death and has asked for help from the State Law Enforcement Division, said SLED Inspector Richard Hunton. Sheriff James E. Singleton couldn't be reached for comment.

Sprague is the son of Joel and Gaye Sprague of Greenville and has an older brother, Jay, who attends Clemson, Dezen said. Relatives wanted to grieve in private Sunday, he said.

Garrison, the namesake of Clemson's livestock arena, owned Denver Downs Farm for years. His son Bart Garrison, also a Clemson graduate, died in a silo accident on the family's farm in May 1990.

Sprague was an outstanding athlete and scholar, Dezen said. He played on the Red Raiders' soccer team. Greenville County Schools honored him for being one of 12 students who never missed a day of high school.

"In his intelligence, his spirit and his joy for life, Ben Sprague was a giant," Dezen said.

My condolences to Benjamin's family; losing a child at Christmastime is particularly horrific.

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Listening to: Minutemen - Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing
via FoxyTunes

Leave That Trouble Alone

Good Morning! I must toil further in the fields of capitalist holiday retail-season insanity today, but I will leave the rest of you with this nice homily for Dead Air Church!

Warning: these women look like real women, not like MTV, BET or CMT women. I know, it might be a shock to your system, but how refreshing! :)

~*~

Nerissa & Katryna Nields - Leave That Trouble Alone

[via FoxyTunes / Nerissa & Katryna Nields]

Ron Paul at the Peace Center Amphitheater, Greenville, SC

I forgot to charge up my nice new camera's battery... d'oh! ...and thus, cribbed these ultracool photos from the Greenville News. If they make me take em down, oh well. But in the meantime, I can show you where I went, and who I saw tonight.



Republican presidential candidate, Congressman Ron Paul gave a speech to hundreds of revved-up followers in the Peace Center Amphitheater, in downtown, Greenville, South Carolina, this evening. I was dumbfounded (and impressed) by the fervor. There was music, food, and almost balmy weather. I actually enjoyed the event.

I used to call this place Mayberry, but in the last decade it has turned into what David Brooks calls a Latte Town. It was interesting to see Ron Paul's middle American populists in the pricey mall-atmosphere that downtown Greenville has become. Greenville was built by working class people, like those at the Ron Paul rally. Now that the mills are gone, and once-humble Reedy River neighborhoods transformed into the millionaire's River Place (with appropriately upscale restaurants and hotels), I could easily guess which families were headed for swanky Soby's, and which were headed for Ron Paul. Many of the people in the surrounding, trendy, spanking-new restaurants and apartments came out on their decks, cocktails in hand, to have a look at the spectacle. I felt the impact of them looking down, quite literally, on us.

Not the money people, in other's words. Not your father's Republican party.

Standing around beforehand, sipping hot chocolate with Carolina fans for Ron Paul, I tried to sort out his appeal. Lots of these people were saying they don't usually get involved in politics, so what brings them out for Ron? Let me count the ways. The GrannyWarriors, with their pet monkey, never tire of telling you how much they love Ron. The collapse of the dollar, among other concerns, is one motivation. But overwhelmingly, I heard young men especially say that the trashing of the constitution in fighting an undeclared war (with no end in sight), was something that they felt strongly about.

Ron Paul was introduced by a conservative talk radio guy from Charleston (whose name and radio station I didn't catch), who promptly confused me by trashing Sean Hannity. Huh? Again, not your father's GOP.

"Why is the national media talking about Huckabee in Iowa when Ron Paul has more money and bigger crowds? Why do they patently ignore the actual numbers, in favor of coverage of Giuliani and Romney?" he asked. Indeed, I hadn't thought of it, but Ron Paul doesn't get much mainstream TV coverage.

Living in an early primary state and deciding to become a Political Blogger(tm), I dutifully signed up for all the campaign updates. It's been an illuminating exercise in what politicians consider important: money. Most campaign emails do not discuss policy, ideas, intentions, plans for the country, etc. They discuss CONTRIBUTE HERE, with a bright red button you can click to take you to the contributors page.

Here, as in other respects, Ron is far ahead of the rest of the pack. Certainly, he asks for money, but he always includes strong political statements in his email. He actually assumes people on his mailing list care about what is happening. And he doesn't talk down to them. Decidedly not a movie star of any sort, he repeatedly says WE instead of "I"--as in WE can do this together, not I will do this for you.

There is the sentiment in the crowd that he is a savior, but also, somehow, that he is an ordinary person. I find the confluence of the two sentiments odd, but thoroughly American and completely fascinating.

One of my political mentors, the late Steve Conliff, taught me to think strategically about elections. A radical and Yippie, he nonetheless deliberately ran as a Republican candidate for governor, not as a Democrat. He used to counsel us to vote for the most liberal Republican in the primaries, drawing the most conservative party to the left, which he felt was crucial. Then, cast your vote according to precinct in the general election. If your precinct can't waste a single Democratic vote, you know what to do. However, if the GOP has the election sewn up in your neighborhood (as SC is a predominantly GOP state, and there is little chance of that changing in 2008), get creative. Send messages. Vote for the Green Party, or Ron Paul, or a write-in candidate. Do something.

Let them know that Tweedledee and Tweedledum are simply no choice.

Ron Paul: Missing weapons put soldiers at risk
Ron Paul: No escalation with Iran

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Listening to: Magazine - A Song from Under the Floorboards
via FoxyTunes

Obama rumors

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Listening to: The Clash - I'm So Bored with the U.S.A.
via FoxyTunes

Odds and Sods III

Apparently this will be my last update on the suspicious death of Richard Javis 'Jabo' Johnson, in which 25-year-old Johnson was found hanging in his Fountain Inn jail cell under rather specious circumstance. Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor Bob Ariail ruled last month that no criminal charges will be filed, and I've read several accounts since that reinforce the message: case closed.

Reverend Curtis Johnson, pastor of Valley Brook Baptist Church and leader of the group that raised significant logistical questions about the so-called suicide, says they accept and understand the solicitor's decision but still believe it is possible Johnson did not die from his own hand. And for the record, I don't believe it either.

As it is, it looks as if we will never know the truth.

~*~

Meanwhile, at our local fundamentalist crackpots, Bob Jones University, there is an outbreak of whooping cough SO SEVERE that they have closed the fall semester a week early:

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Bob Jones University has decided to end its fall semester a week early after nearly 30 confirmed or suspected cases of whooping cough were reported on the school's Greenville campus.

BJU said Friday that it will end the semester on Friday, Dec. 7, rather than Dec. 13 as originally scheduled.

The state Department of Health and Environmental Control said that it is working with the school to make sure all necessary precautions are being taken to prevent the spread of the disease, also known as pertussis.

Wait, you are thinking, didn't they develop a vaccine for that, like a century ago, or something? Yes, indeed, and that is the elephant in the room that no one will touch, except to simply state that it is preventable:

Whooping cough, which is the common name for the disease pertussis, is a highly communicable, vaccine-preventable illness that lasts for many weeks and most often affects children, causing severe coughing spasms and vomiting, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What no one will come out and say is: THESE DAMN IGNORANT FUNDIES HAVE PUT US ALL AT RISK AGAIN WITH THEIR VACCINO-PHOBIA AND FEAR OF MODERN MEDICINE!

The next time some herbalist (and I am one, so I'm allowed to write this), alternative medicine-maven or fundamentalist nutcake preaches at you that autism, ADD, fibromyalgia, depression, bipolar disorder, cancer and who-knows-what-all are caused by vaccines, show them this blog entry and slap them upside the head for me, willya? And ask how they would feel if they lived near the offending school?

PRETEND you live near an outbreak, as I do, now, you gonna go get your kid vaccinated or NOT?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

~*~
And finally, more Christmas shopping ideas. Last year, I was depressed I couldn't see my daughter and granddaughter at Christmas, and I was therefore happy to meet the incredibly-adorable FLAMEGAL (aka Rachael), almost exactly my grandbaby's age. Rachael's mom, Penny, brought me a lovely Christmas gift (click to see her beautiful dichroic-glass creations!), and wished me well for the holidays, as one mother to another.

Even more than that, like so many people cursed with retail servitude at Christmastime, I was feeling down; as if the holidays had gone 100% mercenary and could never be redeemed. Penny restored my belief in Christmas as a time of love, friendship and good will.

This is my way of saying thank you! and Merry Christmas!

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Listening to: Jimi Hendrix Experience - Third Stone from the Sun
via FoxyTunes