CENTRAL LOS ANGELES : Letter From Powell Ends Sit-In at Park
The Great Colin Powell sit-in is over.
The Powell fan named CaShears, a singer turned community activist who had spent the last 36 days and nights in Leimert Park staging a sit-in to convince the former general to run for president, ended his vigil Monday morning after receiving a faxed letter from Powell.
Read the letter to CaShears: “I am moved that you have so much confidence in me that you would undertake a vigil to influence me to change my mind about not running for office in 1996. My decision, however, is final. . . . I encourage you to end your vigil and find a new way to challenge your energy in service to the nation.”
With tears of joy, CaShears told a crowd of reporters Monday morning, ‘I’m ecstatic and I’m honored. He went out of his way to do this.”
CaShears began his sit-in after Powell announced he would not seek elective office, hoping that Powell would change his mind or personally explain his decision.
But once he received the fax, CaShears said that was enough for him. ‘I have to honor his request because of the way I feel about him,” he said.
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