About The Founders;
Gerald K. Hege, co-founded A Real Man's View while doing an internet radio show in 2005. The topic of news media came up during a discussion. Hege suddenly realized that the American people were dominated, fascinated and captivated by millionaires in the news. Americans pay unbelievable prices to watch millionaries play sports, drive racecars and host news shows. We are controlled by millionaire politicians, millionaire lawyers, millionaire news anchors and our money is controlled by millionaire bankers on wall street. Even our presidents are millionaires.
Though there is certainly nothing wrong with acheiving the American dream of becoming a millionaire, the reality is there has been no media outlet to allow the working man to directly express his views and opinions. Even such notibles as Rush Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy are millionaires. An opportunity that would provide a forum to hear the views of the average working man has been much needed.
A Real Man's View was born and is hosted by such men. Gerald Hege was born on Tobacco Road in the farming community of Pilgrim, North Carolina. He was raised by a family who only knew hard work and hard ways. This former North Carolina lawman burst onto the national scene in the election year of 1994. Standing nearly six-feet, four-inches tall and weighing two hundred and twenty five pounds, this country boy had spent twenty years of his life trying to fulfill a childhood dream... becoming Sheriff of Davidson County, North Carolina.
When he was only twelve and playing football in a cow pasture, he watched the ball as it rolled into the street. When he went to retrieve it, he stepped in front of an old dirty sheriff car. Out came a pot bellied deputy with snuff stains all over his shirt. He began to curse the tall skinny kid. After a few minutes, the little boy looked up at him and said, “ I will be the Sheriff some day and you won’t have a job.” The deputy and all of the kid’s friends laughed at him. The little boy never forgot their laughter.
As he grew older he was told he would never make the football team because he was too skinny. He was All Conference when he graduated from high school. Once, he was told by his high school coach, “I don’t mind you knocking players out, but please wait and do it when we play another team. We need our guys to be able to play in the game.”
In 1968 he went in the United States Army and quickly left for Vietnam. He served with the 25th Division, made famous by the depiction in the award winning film, “Platoon” by Oliver Stone. He served in combat as a mortar man and grunt.
After returning from Vietnam, he was hired as a Deputy Sheriff and quickly built a reputation as a “kick ass” kind of guy. He left after a dispute involving four inmates who jumped him in a hallway. When ask by the Sheriff if he had hit the poor prisoners Hege replied, “no, I kicked their butt and left.”
He vowed then and there that the next time he would be wearing the badge of High Sheriff. It took him twenty long years to do so, but on that November night in 1994, he beat all the odds, all the rich folks and confounded all of the newspapers. Even a recount could not keep him out. For the next eight and half years the people of Davidson County and the world would watch one of the most controversial lawman in American history take the stage. What a ride!
Para military uniforms, pink jails with blue teddy bears and no television was his calling card. Not only did he bring the chain gang back to North Carolina, he required them to wear black and white striped uniforms made of wool saddle blankets. A big stick, machine gun, a black Impala sporting a NASCAR engine (with nitrous) from Richard Childress Racing was his trademarked, “Spider Car.”
The working folks loved him and the rich politicians hated him.He spoke his mind and didn’t care who liked it. While being interviewed by a reporter who was trying to make him look bad, he was asked the question, ”some people say you have an ego problem and you like to drink?” Hege, without blinking an eye replied, “someone told me… you were kissing a goat last night”… interview over.
He created the first posse east of the Mississippi and organized two hundred road blocks a month, stopping seventy five thousand cars in one year, including the Secretary of State of North Carolina. That didn’t go over very well.
While doing a radio show in Greensboro, North Carolina, he was asked the question, “what would you say is your two biggest problems in Davidson County?” As always he quickly replied, “red tape and more red tape".
Black berets, big sticks, thousands of arrest and millions of dollars taken off the interstate quickly caught the eye of the big boys in New York City. Producer Andy Regal from Court TV noticed the potential in this big southern Sheriff. The Sheriff had a local radio show featuring inmates from the county jail. This was a first. They found this big country Sheriff had the only show of its kind, not only in the USA but the world. Soon after, Court TV began to air “Inside Cell Block F” and the rest is history. The Sheriff became known all over the world. The planes begin to land.
Deborah Norville, 20/20, the Today Show, Cops, America’s Most Wanted; the list went on and on. Comedy Central, stories in USA Today, Maxim, articles in France, Germany and around the world quickly followed.
Politicians would throw darts at his pictures. He had fired up the working class and they now had one of their own in office. They elected him three times, despite hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent on one thing. Getting rid of the country boy who made the suit and tie wearing, pot bellied, golf playing, junket taking scum, stand out in a crowd. With unfounded rumors that he may run for Congress floating around, everyone knew it was just a matter of time before the big boys would get him out of the way.
In May of 2003, the Sheriff was charged with a 15 count indictment which included 2 obstruction of justice charges. Though many county residents believed the investigation and charges were politically motivated, Hege himself never made that charge. Mysteriously, the state attorney dropped 13 of the charges which left Hege facing only the 2 obstruction of justice charges. Hege decided to resign and plead guilty to the two obstruction charges recognizing that these charges more closely represented his technical misjudgment. During his plea agreement, Hege was approached by his attorneys with what was, according to them, a request by the prosecution, that he sign a paper stating that he would never run for public office again. Hege, realizing the unusual nature of this request and knowing that the state of North Carolina automatically restores the citizenship of anyone convicted of a felony upon the completion of their sentence, refused the offer. It was then that he realized that the allegations of political motivation by the prossecution may have had vality.
These suspicions of political motivations would surface again as recently as Mach of 2009 when Davidson County state senator Stan Bingham introduced a bill to change the constitution of North Carolina to prohibit a convicted felon from running for Sheriff even though his sentence has been completed and his citzenship restored. Many residents of Davidson County believe this smells of political collusion seeing the present Sheriff, David Grice and Senator Stan Bingham are both from the town of Denton, North Carolina.
Many constitutional scholars have expressed concern with Bingham's bill saying that changing the North Carolina constitution to prevent one man from running for sheriff against a friend and fellow citizen of the Senator introducing the bill is suspicious. The primary election process of the North Carolina general election proceedures are in place to prevent an unwanted canidate from being elected. Since Hege has completed his sentence and had his citizenship restored, many constitutional lawyers believe that any attempt to block him from running for sheriff would be a violation of his constitutional rights and would lead to many legal challenges in state and federal courts. This would result in huge and unnecessary expence for the state.
Even after these misfortunes, Hege remains a popular figure in Davidson County. Many local politicians and citizens feel that Hege, should he choose to run for sheriff again, would be elected. Though Hege has not officially confirmed his candidacy at the time of this writing, many believe that he will run in 2010.