(The irony)

With the latest flap regarding Mark Williams racist remarks over at The Tea Party, I thought I would toss in some historic audio of a KKK rally, held in Saugus California on September 17, 1966. Recorded unflinchingly by Pacifica Radio, the rally has an eerie sense of deja-vu. The racism is overt, there is no doubt about it. But then as now, the government is the culprit. It's the Government who are perverting the Constitution. It's the Government who are stifling Freedom of Speech. it's the Government who are ruining our lives.

All buzz words. Pretty much the same buzz words you hear now. The difference however, is a subtle one - one that hopefully most won't notice. But in 1966, subtle wasn't in their vocabulary.

Rev. Warren: “This is a nation of the people, by the people and for the people and we are going to restore our Constitutional government in this country. We are working for the impeachment and removal of every non-Christian that is on the Supreme Court of The United States. We are going to remove every non-white man from the Congress and from the State Department and from any other area of the government. We are going to reintroduce laws against racial inter-marriage.”

The main speaker was a Revered Warren who claimed to be a member of the Southern Baptist Methodist Church. I haven't been able to find any other information on him, nor do I have any information on the speaker who begins the tape. But the inflammatory hate speech and race baiting are carbon copies of words spoken at any one of a thousand rallies. You can draw your own conclusions.

The hate however, is timeless.

A word of caution - I'm not so sure you'll want to play this at your work since I didn't censor a word or syllable of it.

(Lester Maddox and thug wielding "drumstick" - some drum . ..and pay no attention to the gun)

Lester Maddox addresses a meeting of the New York Press Club on January 29, 1971. With the ongoing campaign to whitewash the Civil Rights Movement and the desire to turn the evolution clock back at least a hundred years, it's good to be reminded from time to time that those practitioners of hate, racism, bigotry and violence under the guise of "democracy and freedom" were very much alive and active and being revered as "misunderstood patriots". And even while their feeble attempts at explaining away hateful behavior fall on largely skeptical ears, there are still those, and they have forums now, who try to drive the point home that all that hate was an illusion, that those lynchings never happened, that passing laws eliminating discrimination were in fact bad for our country. That Lester Maddox wasn't as bad as all the "librul press" painted him to be. That he was just a "lovable boob who talked funny."

Lester Maddox: “You read about some drumsticks I brought up here, not axe handles, pick handles . . drumsticks, souvenirs. Pick in Pickrick means to select, choose, pick out. Rick means to pile up, heap or amass. So these are popular souvenirs for more reasons than the one you heard. And so . . many congressmen and Senators had asked for them. Capitol office officials and staff, black and white. And so they had asked for a number of them. And I brought a box rather than have them mail ‘em on my next trip to Washington. And the Capitol Police wanted to carry them into the dining room and I wouldn’t let them, because the manager of the club and others there wanted them and I said to go outside they can’t take them in. But you read in the paper and broadcast that I brought a boxful of them into the dining room. I read in a Chicago newspaper that I had a box full of them under my table.”

There is an active movement afoot to re-write history. And if the distraction is loud enough and the claims wild enough and told often enough, there is a strong chance you will simply forget what the truth of the situation was and believe the lie.

And you can't afford to do that.

Sometimes history in retrospect has a habit of skipping over the slow evolution and jumping straight to the struggle, conflict and resolution. There is a desire to encapsulate history and events into a sort of "now it's here and now it's not" approach, not realizing the overwhelming obstacles that were faced during the times of insurmountable odds and how those times seemed terminal, the odds against change just seemed too high.

In the case of this interview, the panel program Meet The Press from April 17, 1960, the method of non-violent protest was just evolving and, much like the Occupy Movement of today, was met with a goodly degree of skepticism and incredulity on the parts of mainstream media. Much as we are led to believe, and told repeatedly, that mainstream media is a bastion of Liberalism, it is simply and historically not true. Never has been and never was. What's important to realize is that Dr. King knew this was, not just a change of laws and attitudes, but this was a change of spirit and morals. And he knew such an inside job wasn't going to happen at the snap of a finger.

Dr. Martin Luther King: “This doesn’t come overnight. The non-violent way doesn’t bring about miracles in a few hours, in a few days, or in a few years for that matter. I think at first, the first reaction of the oppressor when the oppressed people rise up against the system of injustice is an attitude of bitterness. But I do believe that if the non-violent resisters continue to follow the way of non-violence, they eventually get over to the hearts and souls of the former oppressors. And I think it eventually brings about that redemption that we dream of. Of course I can’t estimate how many people we’ve touched so far. This is impossible because it’s an inner process. But I’m sure something is stirring in the minds and the souls of people. And I’m sure that many people are thinking anew on this basic problem of human relations.”

And that's what it's really all about.

Relevant then - imperative now.

(George Wallace - if he was still alive he'd be making his own teabags)

Someone once told me they could never get enough of listening to George Wallace because everything he said has some ring of insanity to it. I certainly couldn't argue with him there, but I wonder just how he would fit in with the current state of domestic turmoil we appear to be going through. Probably very nicely I suspect.

Here is an interview, an episode of Meet The Press from October 25, 1964 where Wallace as well as Vermont Governor Phillip H. Hoff (D-VT) talk about the upcoming election and how the landscape has changed, with Alabama heading over to the Republican side for the first time and Vermont headed over to the Democrats, also for the first time.

Wallace though, entertains no end.

George Wallace: “I don’t think there’ll ever be in my lifetime any desegregation to the extent that the liberals are talkin’ about. We have token integration in Alabama as a result of the Federal courts, who themselves have arrogated to themselves the right to determine the policy of schools in our state. People now on the Federal Court system run our country, they have even taken over the Congress, they’ve taken over my state. No governor in the country has authority anymore. One Federal judge, appointed for life, runs the schools and runs government in my state. Reapportioned the legislature to decide what district Congressmen can run from. And I don’t think in my lifetime or your lifetime that we’re going to have any total desegregation in any state in the union.”

For his part though, Wallace scrupulously avoids endorsing any candidate for President since he was all too aware his name carried a certain dose of poison along with it.

One aspect of civility and political intelligence our current crop of electoral luminaries fail to recognize.

(We would be very sad indeed)

With the latest imbroglio developing over a statement by Harry Reid, and how the Trent Lott/Strom Thurmond controversy has been called to mind. I thought it would be a good idea to run the clip in question from that 100th birthday dinner honoring Strom Thurmond where Trent Lott offered praise for Thurmond's 1948 Presidential bid.

Trent Lott: “When Strom Thurmond ran for President we voted for him. We’re proud of him! And if the rest of the country had followed our lead we wouldn’t had all these problems over all these years either.”

I don't really think you can put Reid's comments and Lott's comments anywhere near the same league, despite desperately idiotic attempts to the contrary.

(Time for a conscience check)

With the current situation of racist rants, lunatic fringe incitements and the never-ending realm of fear, I thought it might be a good idea to offer a few words from Dr. Martin Luther King, from one of his Massey Lectures recorded for The Canadian Broadcasting Company in 1967. This one is entitled "The Impasse Of Race Relations".

Dr. Martin Luther King: “I would submit two sentences written a century ago by Victor Hugo. ‘If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness'.”

I can think of several people causing the darkness right at this moment. And they are being paid handsomely for it.

(Robert Shelton - Imperial Wizard of the KKK - life of the party)

With the current wave of hatespeak flooding the air and cable, I noticed a striking similarity in all of it; that strange desire to take half-truths, outright lies and fabrications and somehow weave them into plausible, factual events and speak about them with an air of honest-to-God authority.

So I stumbled across an interview done by Marsha Tompkins at WBAI in New York with Imperial Wizard of the KKK Robert Shelton on December 23, 1969, conducted at his home in Tuscaloosa Alabama.

Shelton makes no bones about the fact that he's anti just about everything and every one on the planet. Tompkins makes no bones about being intimidated and doesn't question any of his logic. Which, in retrospect was probably a good thing, because it allowed him to spew and continue spewing in a way that would have ground any other interview to a screaming halt. In this context, Shelton is seen for the person he really was; petty, vindictive, ignorant, arrogant and terrified.

Pick which wingnut personality he most closely resembles today. Without too much trouble you'll probably find a lot. The common denominators are hate and ignorance and an overwhelming fear.

(They would have you believe they are as American as Apple Streudel!)