Studer Community Institute

Some good and bad in all of us

December 15, 2014
/ Reggie Dogan
/ training-development

My mother always warned me to be careful about judging people. I forever will remember her saying: “There’s some good in the worst of us and some bad in the best of us. It behooves us all to not sit around and judge the rest of us.” I thought about my angel mother’s wise words after it was brought to my attention that last week marked the 10^th anniversary of the untimely death of Willie Junior. In the midst of a long and mostly distinguished political career, Junior, the first black person elected to the Escambia County Commission, fell victim to greed and corruption. On a cool, sunny Dec. 9 morning, a decade ago, the 62-year-old former commissioner was found underneath the house of a former employee. Junior went missing in November, on the day that he was about to be sentenced on charges of extortion, bribery and grand theft. In exchange for a vote on a land deal, he admitted that he had received a $90,000 bribe from former state senator and then fellow commissioner W.D. Childers. Junior never showed up for his court date. A month later, his decomposed body was discovered next to three empty Heineken bottles and an unmarked prescription bottle. Autopsy results concluded he committed suicide, a tragic fall from grace for a man who had been elected five times as the District 3 representative. To this day, many people refuse to believe Junior committed suicide. Regardless of how Junior died, people who knew and respected him prefer to remember how he lived. Commissioner Lumon May, who was elected last year to serve District 3, hopes history will be kind and reward Junior for making a significant contribution to this community. “In my canvassing, going door-to-door and doing outreach, I found there still is a lot of gratitude and support for Commissioner Junior,” May said. “I wouldn’t be serving without him.” Despite his shortcomings, Junior was a natural politician. He fought for the underdog. If you need potholes patched, sidewalks built, streets paved, Junior would get it done. May remembered so many people telling him how Junior paid a light bill, helped get a child out of jail, put food on a needy person’s table. As head of the Community Action Program, Junior was dubbed “The Cheese Man” for giving out so much free food. It didn’t matter to Junior if they lived in the mostly urban District 3 near the city or in the boondocks of District 5 in the north of the county. He was concerned not just with his district, but the entire county, May said. “In spite of how his tenure ended, as far as public perception, he made a tremendous contribution to Escambia County,” said May. “He will always be used as reference because he was the first.” I didn’t know Junior very well. We talked and interacted mostly on a professional level. He was always cordial and accommodating, but he was guarded about his personal life and protective of his privacy. Beneath the façade of the fancy suits and the fast cars, Junior carried a hint of insecurity about his life and uncertainty about his place in the glare of spotlight and scrutiny of his life in public. It was those shortcomings that possibly led to his downfall. In her book, “Why Good People Do Bad Things,” Debbie Ford writes about the darkness that lies within all us that causes us “to act out in appropriate ways, destroy our relationships, sabotage our dreams, and place ourselves in harm’s way.” One reason so many good people end up doing bad things is because our alter ego is animated by wants, needs and deep feelings of unworthiness. Willie Junior died in shame and disgrace. Of all the good things he did for so many people, his legacy is forever tarnished by the choices he made. Sometimes, regardless of age, position or prestige, we make poor choices when we yield to peer pressure. It’s a truism that tomorrow’s blessing or curse depends on the choices we make today. “There is good and bad in all of us,” May said. “We all leave a legacy, and Commissioner Junior left a legacy of love for his community and love for Escambia County.”

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Some good and bad in all of us

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