Man Keeps Vigil for Powell Explanation : Politics: Calvin Shears vows to stay at park until retired general comes to explain why he wouldn’t run for President.

For the third morning in a row, Calvin Shears woke up in his beige recliner next to a couple of picnic tables in the Crenshaw district’s Leimert Park on Thursday.

He was not lacking a home. He was lacking a candidate.

Shears, a ballad singer-turned-community activist, vows to sit in the recliner until Colin Powell comes to Crenshaw to talk about why he broke Shears’ heart by deciding last week not to run for President.

Powell told America last week that he will not run for President because he does not hear “the calling” for a political career.

Snaps Shears: “Then he’s not listening in the right direction.”

Shears, who believes millions of Americans remain similarly crestfallen by Powell’s decision, claims he’s willing to stay chairside as late as February’s New Hampshire primary. He’s brought a tent in case it rains.

Behind him is a sign that reads, “Colin Powell: You owe me and America. I am not disappointed, I am hurt. I will not leave this spot until you tell me to my face why you won’t rescue America. . . . You owe America.”

Bundled up in a ski jacket and a wool cap to fight off the misty, morning chill, Shears chatted with a small crowd that had gathered around him: passersby curious about his sign, some members of the mourning Citizens for Powell Committee, even a correspondent from KROQ, a Pasadena-based rock music station.

“I’m protesting,” said Shears, who goes by the nickname CaShears, as he sipped hot tea to nurse a cold. “But I’m actually begging. He owes us the benefits of his courage and his compassion.”

CaShears believes that Powell is the only man who can reach out to minority communities, especially African American youth and gang members. He believes the general let these people down when he said he would not run.

CaShears tells a story of how one young gang member came to talk to him late Tuesday night, disappointed by Powell’s decision.

“The boy said to me, ‘He’s got everything, and he still quit,” CaShears said. “I don’t think [Powell] knows the depth of the love that was there for him.”

Two blocks away from the park is the headquarters of the Citizens for Powell Committee where CaShears had stopped by Nov. 9 to hear Powell’s announcement from Virginia.

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He shared his anger about Powell’s decision with Emmett Cash III, the president of the committee. Cash was already working on plans to start a drive to draft Powell into running when CaShears made an offhand remark: “If it was up to me, I’d go sit in the park.”

Two days later, Cash invited CaShears out for breakfast at Crenshaw’s popular Boulevard Cafe. Cash asked him if he was serious. Yes, CaShears said. With that, they went to a nearby thrift store, where Cash bought the recliner.

CaShears said he set aside his singing career in 1982 after he visited South Africa on a tour with Tina Turner.

Touched by the plight of black South Africans, he moved to Watts upon returning to Los Angeles and painted his car red, white and blue.

He said he dedicated himself to bringing the spirit of the American dream to the inner-city communities, places that “don’t hear the voice of America.”

In 1992, in the wake of the Los Angeles riots, he worked with gang members, helping to set up small truces and even convincing them to turn in their guns in exchange for jobs he arranged for them.

It led to one of his most embarrassing moments: A USA Today reporter approached CaShears, saying he wanted to do a story about the gun-for-jobs exchange and had CaShears arrange for five gang members to hand over their weapons in front of a camera.

What resulted was not a story about African American youth turning their lives around, but about gang members arming themselves for more riots.

While the newspaper subsequently corrected the story, CaShears said gang members lost their trust in him and began to threaten to kill him.

“My life is still in peril,” he said, choking back tears.

CaShears said his red, white and blue car has not moved since the incident, and said he had let his activism slide.

He described his vigil in Leimert Park as his first public attempt to become involved in the community again.

Powell’s candidacy “has awakened me,” CaShears said on the fourth day of his protest.

Grinning, he told how a Jamaican woman had brought him some chicken and rice, how a Japanese man gave him a pack of gum, how gang members stopped by late at night to check on him.

“This has taken on a life of its own,” CaShears said.

He takes pains to say that he is not asking Powell to win the presidency, just to try.

“I just want him to run,” he said.

Even if Powell decides not to run, CaShears said he will end his sit-in if the former general will simply come to the park and tell him why.

“Let this be Colin Powell’s last military action,” he says, smiling at the notion. “I want him to relieve me of my post. It would be a nice way to end this.”