By Ben Stein on 12.20.02 @ 12:07AM
Trent Lott did a wrong and hurtful thing. But let's look at a few points that have not been as thoroughly looked at as they might.
Start with the obvious. When Strom Thurmond had his 100th
birthday party the other week and the politicians were showering
praise on him, of both parties, by the way, Senator Trent Lott went
too far. He should not have said that America would have been
better off if the Dixiecrat ticket had won in 1948. The Dixiecrats
(by the way, overwhelmingly Democrat, not GOP ) were against
anti-lynching laws, against voting rights laws protecting black
voters, against even the whisper of school integration. They were
very much in the zeitgeist of their times for the Deep South, but
their ideas have come to be seen -- correctly -- as repellent to
human decency.
So, Trent Lott made a mistake. And for it, he has thoroughly
apologized. In fact, I have a hard time recollecting any
politicians who have apologized as much as he has. And he should
have apologized. He did a wrong and hurtful thing.
But let's look at a few points that have not been as thoroughly
looked at as they might.
First, there is no accusation at all that in his political
behavior right now or in recent years, Trent Lott is a racist. He
has black staff, gets black votes, and is not there in the well of
the Senate filibustering against civil rights. That is, his crime,
if crime it be, is not an actual act, but what George Orwell in
1984 would have called "Thought Crime." If he were to
resign, it would not be for any legislative act against human
decency, but for his thoughts. This is a novel and dangerous way to
approach human guilt or innocence -- to punish for thoughts rather
than for actions. Stalin and Hitler would understand it, but we in
America usually do not.
Second, we live in a society that prizes above all acts of
contrition and offers of forgiveness. This society by and large
forgave Jesse Jackson (then a candidate to be) when he called New
York "Hymietown" after he asked for forgiveness. By and large, we
forgave Bill Clinton his extramarital high jinks after he asked for
forgiveness. The society has by and large forgiven and forgotten
the leftists who marched on orders from Stalin in the 1930,
forties, and fifties...even though they never apologized. Surely,
especially at this time of year, we can forgive a man who has so
earnestly sought forgiveness.
Third, what about Strom Thurmond himself ? If Trent Lott was at
fault for praising Thurmond and his Dixiecrat run, what are we to
make of Thurmond, who made the run himself, was a frantic, devout
segregationist and racist -- and who forswore himself and became
the Dean of the Senate and the toast of Washington? Trent Lott the
acolyte is surely no more to be blamed than is the master he
served. If the world at large can forgive old Strom, surely we can
forgive Trent.
Fourth, how about concentrating on the future as well as the
past? I was an avid civil rights demonstrator. I still have a scar
on my back (well, really, buttocks ) from a truck running up on the
curb trying to run me over or scare me when I demonstrated in
Cambridge in my home state of Maryland for equal treatment of
African-Americans when I was a college student. I was marching for
open theaters in Maryland (not blacks in the balcony) before I
could drive. But what is on my mind is the amazing progress in this
country, not the past. It is a miracle that we have a Mississippi
U.S. Senator who profusely apologizes to African Americans for a
faulty comment instead of sneering at them as the Mississippi
Senators did in unprintable terms in the not so far away days of
1962 when I first encountered racism in Biloxi in 1962.
Let's dwell on the progress, not upon an unfortunate and stupid
remark made in a moment of effusive sympathy for a very old man.
Yes, Trent was a racist in his youth. So were tens of millions of
others, maybe hundreds of millions. Yes, of course, racism is a
terrible attitude. It is disgusting and wrong. But, yes, he has
changed and in his acts, he sees the dignity of all men and women
of all colors. Let's look at that good, praise it, accept Trent's
apology, assume he can and has learned, and go on with redeeming
America's boundless promise.
topics:
Bill Clinton, Law, NATO, Africa
