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Son of a steelworker, Doug Jones works to connect with Alabama voters
...connect with Alabama voters.
Source: al.com, by Greg Garrison
The summer he was 19 years old, after his freshman year at the University of Alabama, Doug Jones worked in the cotton tie mill at the U.S. Steel plant in Fairfield.
Jones, 63, former U.S. Attorney for the northern district of Alabama, often points to the prosecution of former Ku Klux Klansmen Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry as the defining achievement in his career. They were convicted of murder for killing four young girls in the 1963 Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. Jones led the prosecution decades after the bombing. Blanton was convicted in 2001, the first conviction in the bombing since Robert Chambliss in 1977. Jones was a special prosecutor in the Cherry trial, in 2002.
"What struck me more than anything was this wrongdoing that struck at the heart of everyone, this terrible thing, he took it personally," said Bragg, who covered the trial as a reporter for The New York Times. "It broke his heart. He wasn't just an officer of the court. This was something that broke his heart, as it should have broken everyone's heart. Watching him put the case on, I thought, this guy is smart: smart and a good heart to boot."
Jones bristles at any suggestion that Roy Moore has a special claim on morality and faith in this election. Jones has been a member of Canterbury United Methodist Church in Mountain Brook for more than 33 years, he said.
"We have our values too," Jones said. "I go to church. I'm a Christian. I have as many people of faith that have been reaching out to me about this campaign. Because you can be an extremist. You can take everything to an extreme, and no one really wants that...They want someone who cares about all people, not just a select few.... That's what I think the teachings of religion are, is the caring about the least of these, the caring about all people, and making sure there's a fairness to everything."
"We have our values too," Jones said. "I go to church. I'm a Christian. I have as many people of faith that have been reaching out to me about this campaign. Because you can be an extremist. You can take everything to an extreme, and no one really wants that...They want someone who cares about all people, not just a select few.... That's what I think the teachings of religion are, is the caring about the least of these, the caring about all people, and making sure there's a fairness to everything."
Read it all at: http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/09/son_of_a_steelworker_doug_jone.html#incart_river_home?li_source=base&li_medium=default-widget
