18 January, 2005 - "Goddamn"

A friend of mine asked me today why Edgar Ray Killen is being tried for the infamous murder of three civil rights workers ... again!?!

Yes, again, as if you don't do it the first time you try them again and again. It seems like how those charged with war crimes were hunted for the past 50 years. Some wonder wht good will it do to keep going after some 80 year old man? Well in the case of any murder the quest for justice should never been given up. After 30 years racist hatemonger Byron De La Beckwith was finally prosecuted and died in prison for the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers. Byron De La Beckwith had for many years bragged about how he murdered Evers and gotten away with it, well the American justice system prevailed.

The old southern way of a segregationist society is dead, though racism and intolerance are still alive and well. They go along with power, greed and corruption of the human soul. It is a victory though for everyone that for these men who were murdered years ago that they can find justice. Where before this period in American history they would not.

Of all these places in America Mississippi has been one of the places most likely to find an ignorant, prejudice, racist point of view. My own uncle a retired Methodist minister had a cross burned in front of his back then, as he did not side with such hatred. Again and again I have mentioned that in Mississippi it took until 1996 for slavery to be legally abolished. 1996! And that they did under severe pressure.. Meaning: They did not want too!

Still things have changed, and that is a great thing. Niger Innis a spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality, the same organization the three civil rights apart of when they were nurdered in 1964 stated, "The fact the state of Mississippi is opening this is symbolically important to our country, it's not some imposition, it's the people bringing the case to justice. It's symbolic for how far the South has come, for how far our country has come."

Still I thought about this song by Nina Simone tonight, though Louisiana maybe worse:

click to listen

"MISSISSIPPI GODDAMN"

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddamn

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddamn

Can't you see it
Can't you feel it
It's all in the air
I can't stand the pressure much longer
Somebody say a prayer

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddamn

This is a show tune
But the show hasn't been written for it, yet

Hound dogs on my trail
School children sitting in jail
Black cat cross my path
I think every day's gonna be my last

Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We all gonna get it in due time
I don't belong here
I don't belong there
I've even stopped believing in prayer

Don't tell me
I tell you
Me and my people just about due
I've been there so I know
They keep on saying "Go slow!"

But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Washing the windows
"do it slow"
Picking the cotton
"do it slow"
You're just plain rotten
"do it slow"
You're too damn lazy
"do it slow"
The thinking's crazy
"do it slow"
Where am I going
What am I doing
I don't know
I don't know

Just try to do your very best
Stand up be counted with all the rest
For everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

I made you thought I was kiddin'

Picket lines
School boy cots
They try to say it's a communist plot
All I want is equality
for my sister my brother my people and me

Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie

Oh but this whole country is full of lies
You're all gonna die and die like flies
I don't trust you any more
You keep on saying "Go slow!"
"Go slow!"

But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Desegregation
"do it slow"
Mass participation
"do it slow"
Reunification
"do it slow"
Do things gradually
"do it slow"
But bring more tragedy
"do it slow"
Why don't you see it
Why don't you feel it
I don't know
I don't know

You don't have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddamn

That's it!

PUBLIUS

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