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Call me Forrest Gump Have you noticed, the end of December is creeping up? It makes me wonder all over again: should auld acquaintance really be forgot and never brought to mind, or not? This is an excellent consideration that comes up every year at this time. It's sort of like being hung up with Bill Murry in Groundhog Day. To carry the thought one step further, should auld acquaintance be forgot, and days of auld lang syne --or in plain English, days of long ago? It’s traditionally appropriate to ask these things as the old year morphs into the new. A little honest evaluation of who we were, what we did, and the crowd we hung with is a healthy thing. It might even shed a little light on who we are now and lead to positive character developement. In this light, Mississippi Senator Trent Lott’s been all over the tube for the last few days apologizing for letting a few words from his heart inadvertently slip from his mouth and land in some reporter‘s tape recorder. They happened to tumble out while he was extolling the virtues of retiring senate colleague and former segregationist, Strom Thurmond, at Strom‘s 100 birthday party. With a few loaded words Lott paid personal tribute to Dixie’s own days of old lang syne. What he said was, "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for President, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either." In hind-sight, these were surely some days of auld lang syne that Lott would have been better off to forget. But the Senator said he got caught up in the moment trying to pay his respects to an auld, auld, ...auld acquaintance. He said he was just having a little fun. Some fun. Spoken by the average man-in-the-street the sentiment would have been loud and sad enough, but spoken by the incoming Senate Majority Leader they thumped out in decibel levels equivalent to a bass line belching from a bank of ten-foot woofers at a skin-head heavy-metal concert. They were loud enough to break the heart of anyone old enough to remember the “strange fruit” immortalized by Billy Holiday that once hung from Mississippi trees. And they came with a mute tag line that said: this man’s nothing but an antiquated Dixiesaurus --syrupy drawl, big smile, perfect hair, and all. If Mississipians want Trent Lott to be their spokesman, fine. This nation was founded upon the principle than even petty thinking deserves a chance to be represented in Congress. But when the majority party in the Senate opts for such a leader, it’s another story. In a democracy, wise leadership is a reflection of national character; pettiness at the top is too. Of course the media, in it’s often lopsided and acquiescent look at the nation’s leadership was, as commentator Paul Krugman of the New York Times said, “ ...shocked, shocked to discover that prominent Republicans have a soft spot for segregation — something that was obvious long before Mr. Lott inserted his foot in his mouth. One of these years they'll be equally shocked to discover that prominent Republicans have a soft spot for theocracy.” To which I can only add, thank God for the separation of church and state. From a purely selfish point of view, though, I might wish that Republicans retain Trent Lott as their Senate leader just to keep the G.O.P’s idea of magnanimity solidly in the face of the American people for the next few years. It might lead to change. But seriously, my hopes aside, the guy ought take a back seat to someone not prone to having fun reminiscing about the country’s history of racial oppression. And though it’s not something I often feel moved to do, to be fair I’ve got to say, hooray for George Bush for soundly denouncing Lott’s remarks. Now if he would only expand his mind in other areas... While Trent Lott executes his strategy for survival, making mea culpas as politicians do when caught in the truth with their tongues down, let us all be humbled by his slip of the tongue -or whatever it was. We should examine our own days of auld lang syne and analyze how they’ve led us into our current sin (but let’s use the less evangelical, original Greek translation of the term "sin": hamartia... "to miss the mark"). Too many of us still miss the mark wasting precious psychic energy and goodwill hauling ourselves up on pedestals --personally, sexually, religiously, ethinically, racially, nationally-- constructing elaborate false realities to replace the true one staring us in the face every day --the one set forth in our founding documents which claim that all of us, dear globemates, are created equal. That from Beverly Hills to Botswana, all of us deserve opportunity. That the rights and priviledges we enjoy as Americans are not meant to be limited to accidents of birth. Strom Thurmond’s Segregationist party missed the mark big time in 1948 as slave traders did before them, and as Trent Lott did in his ill-conceived accolade. What's more, we know that Christians have sinned against Muslims, Muslims against Jews, Jews against Palestinians, visa versa, etc. etc. ad nauseum, almost since the world was void and without form. And Rush Limbaugh, damn his big canted mouth, has made a radio career of missing the mark and stoking dark fires. He'd better enjoy his money... But this year, for a little change of rhythm, wouldn’t it be uplifting if most of the 6.5 billion world population made a 2003 resolution to diss anybody dishing lies? Ah, call me fool or Forrest Gump; Prince Mishkin or Candide; but it really is a cool New Year thought, isn’t it? |