That’s what every headline would read this morning if the late Senator had been a Republican.
The longest serving member of Congress, Robert Byrd (D-WV) once said:
“I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side… Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.” – Robert Byrd in letter to Mississippi Senator Theodore Bilbo in 1944.
While I hope that he received absolution from his maker, I’m not sad to see him go. As my friend Justin said:
Look, I know it’s not nice to piss on someone’s grave. But, then again, burning a cross on someone’s lawn wasn’t very nice, either.
And that’s about all I have to say about that this morning.
American Conservative Union says:
What is ACORN up to now? Watch the video at http://www.ACUACORNAction.org to find out what ACORN has become. Track former leaders to ensure that we know when ACORN attempts to create new groups using fake names to continue their work.
June 29, 2010, 11:26 amKristin says:
I truly hope that you can honestly say you’ve never made mistakes or changed your mind about anything. Or did you conveniently forget to read on in his bio? “When running for the United States House of Representatives in 1952, he announced “After about a year, I became disinterested, quit paying my dues, and dropped my membership in the organization. During the nine years that have followed, I have never been interested in the Klan.” He said he had joined the Klan because he felt it offered excitement and was anti-communist.
In 1997, he told an interviewer he would encourage young people to become involved in politics, but to “Be sure you avoid the Ku Klux Klan. Don’t get that albatross around your neck. Once you’ve made that mistake, you inhibit your operations in the political arena.” In his latest autobiography, Byrd explained that he was a member because he “was sorely afflicted with tunnel vision—a jejune and immature outlook—seeing only what I wanted to see because I thought the Klan could provide an outlet for my talents and ambitions.” Byrd also said, in 2005,
June 29, 2010, 1:32 pm“ I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times … and I don’t mind apologizing over and over again. I can’t erase what happened.”
Seems he wasn’t the only person to have tunnel vision.
Jenny says:
There is a big difference between being forgiven for something, and being elevated to a position of prominence and power. I’m sure Sen. Byrd was sorry for his affiliation with the KKK, especially when it went out of vogue.
But the fact remains that openly hated a group of people for something that they couldn’t help being. It’s like hating children for being children, or women for being women. The KKK wasn’t just a group of white people not allowing other races to join. It was a group focused on harming people that didn’t happen to share the same skin color.
I have never, and will never, participate in such a group, for any reason. It’s something called principles and integrity that prevents me from doing so.
It might be forgivable, but it’s inexcusable, and black people that voted for or supported him should take a long hard look at the ideology of the man they held in such high esteem.
People in office need to be held to a higher level of accountability.
June 29, 2010, 6:56 pm