The Answer is Thus

"I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole." --Malcolm X

 

This is where the torso of LYNCHING VICTIM James Byrd, Jr. was found.

James Byrd, Jr. (May 2, 1949 – June 7, 1998) was an African-American who was murdered by three white men, asserted to be white supremacists, during a racially motivated crime in Jasper, Texas, on June 7, 1998. Shawn Berry, Lawrence Brewer, and John King dragged Byrd behind a pick-up truck along an asphalt road after they wrapped a heavy logging chain around his ankles. Byrd was pulled along for about three miles as the truck swerved from side to side. Byrd, who remained conscious throughout most of the ordeal, was killed when his body hit the edge of a culvert, severing his right arm and head. The murderers drove on for another mile before dumping his torso in front of an African-American cemetery in Jasper. (Source: Wikipedia)

When demagogues (who purport to care about "the children") commit stunning ethical lapses as adults who will go to the ends of the earth to avoid and evade responsibility and accountability for their actions;

when those demagogues toss around incendiary words as if they have no meaning (like the word LYNCH--last used so obscenely by Clarence Thomas as he whined about a "high-tech lynching" to divert attention from his proclivities toward sexual harassment and a well-known appetite for pornographic films) and also recklessly attempt to inflame the public through their divisive rhetoric and posturing;

when those demagogues metaphorically equate an elected official's ethical and fiduciary responsibility to be held accountable to the residents of a city to a lynching victim's agonizing torture and death, a profane and shameful comparison at best, and an insult to the memory of lynching victims in general, and a travesty and mockery of the especially painful historical legacy of black people in America, in particular;

when those same demagogues show willful disregard and contempt for the morality, ethics, and honesty of some leaders elected by the people in favor of championing the indefensible and contemptible actions of other so-called "leaders" who willfully obstruct the work of the governing body;

THEN it is time for us to call it as it is. Shameful. Obscene. Profane. Dishonest. Don't misuse language in service of questionable ethical behavior. The people deserve better. Our children deserve to see their leaders act in a morally responsible way.

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." --Winston Churchill*

All best,

Rebecca 

*This is one of my new favorite quotes, sent in a comment by a reader several months ago.