To: Jim McMannis who wrote (270200 ) 1/28/2006 4:50:35 AM From: GUSTAVE JAEGER Respond to Re: Is that the perception from Belgium? Or just yours? Vlaams Belang party.For hating all those people we sure have a lot of them. occawlonline.pearsoned.com rwor.org But meanwhile, it became clear that Lott had said exactly what he believes: In November 1980, at a Mississippi political rally, after Thurmond had made a fiery speech backing Ronald Reagan, then-congressman Lott told the crowd: "You know, if we had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today." In 1992, Lott told a meeting of the Klan-like racist organization, the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC): "The people in this room stand for the right principles and the right philosophy." He is quoted at several places in his career saying that the figure he "feels closest to" in American history is Jefferson Davis--the Confederate leader who led the slaveowners in war. It even came out that when Lott was a college student back in the 1960s, he led a fight to keep Black students out of his Sigma Nu fraternity.publicly and openly defend the old forms of white supremacy. But apparently these days reactionaries are so puffed up that Lott felt safe to let it hang out in front of the microphones in the Senate building itself.after letting his racism hang out too publicly? Isn't it necessary for Lott to go, so the Republican Party and the current government don't all look totally like racist pigs?long-standing practice of covering up such statements by the powerful. And they wonder who among them would be safe, and who might be next.full of people whose racism is notorious. For example, Attorney General John Ashcroft (the man in charge of federal prosecutions, civil rights enforcement and the growing police powers), is famous for praising slave-owning Confederate leaders like Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. Another example: Supreme Court Chief Justice Rehnquist first participated in politics as a "poll watcher" to harass Black and Latino voters during Arizona elections in the 1950s.All of this leads us to ask some questions of our own: What kind of a system gives great power to well-known racists like Trent Lott or John Ashcroft? What kind of a system gives a stone-to-the-bone white supremacist like Strom Thurmond powerful political posts for 74 years--and then openly celebrates his life as he crumbles away? What kind of future can people expect from a system where such men hold power?finally overthrow them all? When can we sweep these outdated, creepy monsters from the stage--and finally get on to the business of ending the mistreatment of Black people forever?!
