Today, we can read about how the Senate is now apologizing that they never made lynching a federal crime.
First, lynching was a common practice everywhere (even in Great Britain) before it ever became a KKK/black issue. And just because a person was white didn't keep him from getting lynched. But things like the movie Roots went a long way in redirecting the truth of history.
Secondly, the senate that is apologizing now is not the same senate that refused to make it a federal crime then. And if the senate of yesteryear was resurrected, it would still make no apologies.
So the move was trite, easy, and pointless.
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8 comments:
Saur, I agree with you 110%. Our culture has this penchant of placing value on the symbolic which has no substantive value. Pure emotionalism. What's next? Reparations? Will that mean money to the families? How about other atrocities? Hate crimes towards subculture groups like gays, transvestites, and trans-sexuals?
They opened a can of worms; let watch see what they do with the tidal wave of other atrocities.
You already know I'm with you here.
All this leads one to wonder... so when WILL they get around to passing a law making lynching a federal crime...?!
Why? Lynching, which is an act of murder, is covered by murder laws that are already on the books in all the states. Needless.
I know, my point was- why bother apologizing if you're still not going to do anything about it?
Okay, I am gonna play devil's advocate here a bit.
First, the fact that an occasional white horse thief was hanged begs the point. Between 1900 and 1963, almost 4500 people were lynched in this country, 94% black, 5% Hispanic, 1% White. To pretend that whites faced the threat of lynching in any real manner is simply self deception. In America, lynching was a means of terrorizing a large minority population into submission, to keep them from demanding their full rights. Make no mistake about it, it was a terrorist crime perpetrated by southern whites on their black neighbors. The fact that it was not only tolerated but supported by most rural Southern whites should be to their great shame. The fact that the rural south was ruled by a shadow government called the Klu Klux Klan does not speak well for rural southerners of the era.
I see no harm in the Senate saying, hey, just for the record, we know our predecessors screwed up, failed morally and in their jobs, and we want to clearly disassociate ourselves from their moral and legislative inadequacies.
It would, however, be a lot more meaningful if some monetary reparations were given to the families or communities who were victimized.
GWB: It was a failure and corruption of state and local law enforcement. Hmmm, perhaps I'm having a rethink here. Let me give you my flow of consciousness. It was the state boys didn't want to deal with it, so a federal law would have gotten the marshalls involved. Had the Senate voted for a law making lynching a federal crime, then the lynchings would probably have stopped. But, these KKK creeps aren't going to let the feds stop them. They probably would have kept the lynchings coming. Or, they would have found some other way to terrorize the blacks. They could have adopted other means of killing that could terrorize even more, like tar and feathering, yet setting them on fire, sort of like Nero did to Christians, only he had them impaled on crosses, dragging people behind a vehicle, shooting which is still very efficient and very undesireable, allowing pit bulls to tear them apart, beheading, boil them in acid. Wait a minute, this sounds like Saddam. I guess any manner of killing would have accomplished the KKK's plan of terror.
Well, I say, what difference would it make? It's after the fact, there's no way to know if a federal law would have done the trick. I say, since we believe in state's rights, let each state that had the lynchings, starting with the governor on down, apologize, and set up a state reparation fund. Then those particular corrupt jurisdictions actually responsible, can repair the damage for the loss of life. U.S. Senator Robert Byrd could go to these states and help mobilize the troops, be a keynote speaker, hey, maybe pull along with him that despicable David Duke, if he's a real man, and go and apologize as well.
Let's get the ball rolling! Let's have some real healing of our nation, not this token B.S. from the Senate.
Next, let's deal with hate crimes against men who are trapped in women's bodies. Who's first to apologize? Then after that, crimes against transvestites who suffered alien abductions, then after that...
GWB,
Where did you get your stats?
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