Interesting obituary being carried by the BBC on the death of Democrat Senator Robert Byrd.
We learn he was 92…that he was the longest serving Senator in Congress….that he was suffering from bad health. Oh – and nine paragraphs later that he was a senior member of the Klu Klux Klan …although this was a youthful indiscretion….could have happened to anyone…..
Yes, indeed, let’s hear it one last time (since the BBC will never mention it), here’s the statesman-like Senator Byrd on integrating the US Army:
[I would] never submit to fight beneath the banner [the American flag] with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.
Also note that the great man had the distinction of voting against the confirmation of both conservative Clarence Thomas and liberal Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. Must have been something not quite right about them.
I noticed that the BBC News Online sub-editor felt that the most important thing to mention up front was that Byrd’s death would not affect the Democrat’s super-majority. Nice to see they have their priorities in order.
And Byrd was in the Klan for a bit more than “a brief period”.
Byrd’s book offers a truncated description of his days with the Klan that does not completely square with contemporaneous newspaper accounts and letters that show he was involved with the Klan throughout much of the 1940s, and not merely for two or three years.
He also stated in 1945 that he would prefer death over serving in an integrated army. Although I do accept that a man can change his views over time. He just didn’t until well after the ’60s, as he worked to block the Civil Rights Act.
However, we all know that nobody from the Right would get the same chance for rehabilitation.
I generally agree with most of what is posted here, and I also agree that no one from the Right would get a chance to save his or her reputation.
However, you are selling Robert Byrd short. Whether you agreed with his politics is not the issue, but whether you are able to separate his politics from the man he became.
There is no question whatsoever that as a younger man he belonged to and believed in the racist, anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic KKK – I believe he rose to be a Kleagle,or Grand Kleagle or whatever that is. He embraced evil and lived it.
But then he changed. He put it down to his embrace of his born-again religion, and maybe that was true, but I suspect he finally grew up and experienced a life in which he had to deal with African-American, Catholics, Jews, and other minorities as equals, and he discovered that the world didn’t come to an end. Then, as he read more, and studied history, he learned how to be a better man.
All of life is a journey. Some of us start off well and stay that way. Others have to fight for decency, and others allow themselves to wallow in corruption and evil. It seems to me that Robert Byrd, whatever his faults, deserves credit for seeing the error of his ways and amending them.
Barbara,
I agree that anyone who repents and changes their views for the better is to be commended. But, I think Cassie makes the point about the BBC’s bias perfectly.
Cassie,
You are on cracking form these days ! What are you smoking ?
I have my moments of lucidity few though they may be 😀
Barbara, it was only twenty years ago that the Bob Byrd, evolved views and all, was a willing participant in trying to cast Clarence Thomas, one of America’s finest legal minds, as a simian sexual predator. For a man who had ‘moved on’ from his racist past, Bobby sure seemed comfortable drawing on every stereotype the KKK had ever promoted of black manhood.
Then again, it was only in 2001 that St Bob was explaining how a lot of America’s problems were down to too many ‘White N*****’, but doubtless in an enlightened kind of way.
Meanwhile, Carol Thatcher is still fired.
The point here isn’t to judge Byrd’s life, really, but rather to point out how the BBC is biased one way versus another. One can say that Byrd really did repent and was rehabilitated eventually without having to sanitize his past in the way the BBC did.
Being in or promoting the KKK for nearly a decade is not exactly a “brief period” (even in the context of such a long life), and if Byrd was fighting against the Civil Rights Act 20 years later, he certainly hadn’t reformed one bit by that point. So his racist past was actually not so brief, but lasted for around 25 years (if not more). The BBC watered down that context significantly.
Contrast the Byrd piece to the BBC obituary for the equally ancient – but Republican – Strom Thurmond. He wasn’t even in the KKK, and had no direct personal connection to actual violence against blacks. But there’s no sanitization here, nor is there any real acknowledgment of possible rehabilitation, as the BBC did for the Democrat Byrd.
Everyone deserves a second chance, a fresh start and the forgiveness of those around them dont they?
Its always funny to see certain selected people offered a second chance free gratis no questions asked airbrushed history and other people never allowed to escape the sins of their past. The BBC has a special hell put aside for some people who they will never forgive and their past will never be forgotten.
No fresh start for some people, no blanket understanding of the indiscretions of youth or mistaken beliefs or ignorance of youth for some people is there?
Here is the strange thing about the BBC, some people are treated to the historical airbrush treatment and some are not, some pasts are ignored and others are never forgotten.
The BBC can be very forgiving and understanding and kind to some and utterly unforgiving and cruel and cynical and spiteful to others. There are two distinct groups of people who are treated in very different ways, now what is the difference between these two groups of people, could it be their political beliefs? Does the BBC treat people with different political beliefs differently? You betcha yer ass they do!
The hate figures of the left will never have their history airbrushed and rewritten or forgiven and some of these hate figures will go to their grave with the BBC hounding them about their pasts and never letting us forget either.
The BBC love their idols of the left, no sin and no crime is serious enough that they cannot be rehabilitated and forgiven. The idols of the left are treated to lashings of BBC kindness and understanding and forgiveness BUT hell hath no fury like a beeboid with a political grudge!
Al Gore is a BBC icon, he is also a grubby crooked two faced arrogant chancer with a penchant for attacking vulnerable girls in a sexual way and he is one person who can fully expect the full BBC airbrush and forgiveness and understanding treatment.
Sarah Palin on the other hand will have her past dredged up by hate filled spiteful beeboids for the rest of her life, every word will be pored over and twisted and attacked, no insult and dirty innuendo is too low for the BBC to harp on about, there will be no understanding and forgiveness for Palin EVER.
I hate the BBC with a passion because of their grubby dishonest partisan and spiteful nature, I am not alone and our numbers are growing.
Check out Cagle’s collection of Byrd obituaries Taking a poll of political cartoonists can be an interesting guide to national opinion. Most were quite laudatory.
Byrd was reported to’ve been removed to his office after becoming ’emotional’ during Barack Obama’s inaugral luncheon. Not sure why.
Cassandra: I enjoy your posts but I have to disagree with your description of Al Gore. He’s much worse than you say. Don’t forget all the awareds that he has received that will henceforth be perceived as rubbish, no matter who receives tham. Keep up the good work.
The BBC has made an expanded version of the Byrd obituary, which now includes a mention of his racist past spanning more than that “brief period”. The update includes this bit:
But there were allegations that he retained an interest in the KKK for several years more.
One letter was cited from 1945 in which he wrote: “Rather I should die a thousand times, and see old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels.”
Well done, BBC, and I say that without sarcasm. Thank you for figuring out how to provide a more honest context. Complaint addressed, problem corrected.
The KKK was the creation of the pro-slavery Dumb-O-Crats.