Finally! Senate Passes Anti-Lynching Resolution. . .Sorta

In an historic move last week the United States Senate finally passed a unanimous sense of the Senate resolution condemning lynching in America and in the process putting an exclamation mark behind one of the more shameful chapters in Senate history. Let us not forget that the same or similar resolutions failed some 200 or more times because of opposition led by Southern Senators. It is important to note that this “unanimous” consent resolution did not receive the support the label would suggest; some twenty or so cowardly souls refused to sign it. Indeed, Senator Frist led the fight to block a roll call vote that would have forced Senators to vote against it on the record, letting them instead remain hidden in the anonymity of a voice vote. Yes, this is the same Senate leader who spoke forcefully in favor of up and down recorded votes in the Senate just a week or so before in the contest over judicial nominees.

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry was right on the mark with the observation that, “It's a statement in itself that there aren't 100 co-sponsors, and as I’ve noted, he correctly observed , “It’s a statement in itself that there's not an up-or-down vote."

What is it they used to say, “with friends like that, who needs enemies?” I refer, of course, to the twenty or so Senators who, at this late date still refused to put their names on the line as supporters of the ant-lynching resolution. Gratuitous remarks aside, America needs to come to grips with the implications of it's racist past. This unanimous consent resolution represents a small step in the right direction. . .for decades our history books have glossed over the facts basic to our American holocaust. Too many of our national leaders do not want to even talk about racism, arguing that it's history, over, done, gone. The clear implication is that racism didn't have consequences. Until we understand something of those consequences we'll never begin to understand the difficulty blacks, as a race, have swimming in the mainstream today. Slavery and the racism that followed in myriad legal-cultural forms did and continues to have consequences. American history be it good or bad lives in us, in our spirit of who we are as people. It's not biology that explains why so many blacks fill our prisons, do poorly in school, etc.

Now, in terms of politics, look at the names of those Senators who did not sign or support the consent resolution if you can find their names listed. . .the voice vote didn’t put them on the record, and the cowardly mainstream media did not see fit to hold their feet to the fire of public opinion.

So, in some sense, the problems associated with centuries of racism and it’s ugliness continue; it’s something we don’t want to talk about and don’t. We’ve blotted the horror of lynching from our history books but we haven’t been able to blot out it’s consequences; to do that we must remove the darkness.


Fortunately, thanks to the bloggers, all is not lost; the names of those cowardly souls are as follows:


The Senate hall of shame !

Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee)
Robert Bennett (R-Utah)
Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico)
Thad Cochran (R-Mississippi)
Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota)
John Cornyn (R-Texas)
Michael Crapo (R-Idaho)
Michael Enzi (R-Wyoming)
Charles Grassley (R-Iowa)
Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire)
Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)
Kay Hutchison (R-Texas)
Jon Kyl (R-Arizona)
Trent Lott (R-Mississippi)
Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)
Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island)
Richard Shelby (R-Alabama)
Gordon Smith (R-Oregon)
John Sununu (R-New Hampshire)
Craigh Thomas (R-Wyoming)
George Voinovich (R-Ohio)

Ever on the watch for ya,

Davy Crockett