Tom Lehrer’s “National Brotherhood Week” on “That Was The Week That Was” — TW3 —notes, in the introduction, that “During National Brotherhood Week various special events are arranged to drive home the message of brotherhood — this year, for example, on the first day of the week, Malcolm X was killed, which gives you an idea of how effective the whole thing is,” before specifying at the outset of a couple of verses,
“Oh, the white folks hate the black folks,
And the black folks hate the white folks;
To hate all but the right folks
Is an old established rule
“Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics
And the Catholics hate the Protestants,
And the Hindus hate the Moslems,
And everybody hates the Jews.”
Commentators turn a blind eye to the coincidence that, on the 60th anniversary of the heinous murder of Civil Rights Movement hero Vernon Dahmer (on January 10, 1966, in Hattiesburg), Temple Beth Israel in Jackson was deliberately destroyed.
Predictably news accounts mention the September 18, 1967 bombing of Temple Beth Israel by the Ku Klux Klan. Nothing in Mississippi occurs in a vacuum, detached from infamous, ignominious activity haunting the Magnolia State for virtually its entire existence.
Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam” — after expressing outrage over the bombing in Birmingham that killed four innocent girls (on September 15, 1963, at the 16th Street Baptist Church) and the murder in Memphis of Dr. King (on April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel) — has as its refrain,
“Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
Everybody knows about Mississippi, goddam!”
Emmett Till was lynched in 1955. Mack Parker was lynched in 1959. The University of Mississippi became a scene of mobocracy, foregoing fidelity to the Rule of Law, in 1962. Medgar Evers was murdered in 1963. James Chaney, Andy Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner were murdered in 1964.
No wonder Jerry Lewis proudly proclaimed on “The Tonight Show” (on Monday March 24, 1969) that he had fulfilled ‘a lifetime ambition’ by ‘using the bathroom while flying over Mississippi.’”
Although Mississippi cannot escape an ignoble past, Mississippians can aspire to an enlightened future, relegating our shameful history to footnotes rather than headlines.
The damage to state’s image is worse than the damage to Temple Beth Israel. Its reputation was torched worse than historic structure.
Mississippians must think intently about ending the hatefulness in our body politic, ensuring that no student completes a degree without keen awareness of Mississippi history and the compelling need to pursue a higher road, moving forward, than exists in our metaphorical rearview mirror.
The alleged criminal destroyed his life: Worse than what he purportedly did is the seeming idiocy displayed, ignorance of anything and everything:
He thought that he would be a hero, that his misdeeds would be applauded — not unlike the people murdering Emmett Till, Mack Parker, Medgar Evers, James Chaney, Andy Goodman, Mickey Schwerner, Vernon Dahmer, and far, far, far too many others.
He apparently admitted targeting Beth Israel because of its “Jewish ties,” describing it as the “synagogue of Satan.” He told the judge overseeing preliminary matters in the case against him, when asked whether he understood his rights,“Yes sir, Jesus Christ is Lord.”
What else is to be expected when White Christian Nationalism is treated as admirable; countless Christians act as if their religious preferences eclipse all others; many people having roots in Northern Europe and Western Europe deem themselves superior to individuals with roots elsewhere; Papists are thought inferior to Protestants; et cetera, et cetera, et cetera?
It is not the Civil War — that we lost, fair and square; my ancestors included — which continues to be fought but the Crusades.
Please let’s prioritize a rewarding future. Those seeking to terminate the braindrain have had their efforts set back a generation. Who wants to inhabit a state with Sisyphean addiction to hate and prejudice?
We can do better, a whole lot better!
Jay Wiener is a Northsider
