Few things in life are certain and one never says never to anything, but this much I know. I will never live in Mississippi. I would select 49 other states before I would select Mississippi as a place to live. I truly mean no offense but its history and customs are too alien for this white yankee. This morning, however, I rise in defense of Mississippi. This proud and beautiful state deserves better than what John McCain is giving it. Today I am a Mississippian.
For purely cynical reasons, John McCain wants to cancel this debate, reschedule it elsewhere and maybe...MAYBE reschedule the Ole Miss debate as a vice presidential debate. Send Sarah Palin to Ole Miss? How insulting and insensitive can John McCain be?
John McCain apparently has no clue of how historic and important this event is to the story of America. It was intended to be a moment of high national catharsis. During the 60's, before McCain languished in the Hanoi Hilton, Mississippi burned. McCain should well remember it. Four civil rights leaders were murdered. James Meredith tried to enroll at the University of Mississippi and was blocked at the door by the state's governor. President Kennedy had to send troops and a deputy attorney general to the campus to protect and enroll citizen Meredith, an "uppity" black whose life was threatened for wanting nothing more than an education.
We are talking about Ole Miss, a one time cradle of southern racial hate and segregation now proclaiming to the world, "we have overcome". And if we can overcome, anyone can overcome. That was to be the powerful subtext of this first debate. John McCain now wishes to deny America this moment.
America First? Who is he kidding?
McCain's presence at this debate along with the first black American nominated for the presidency, standing proudly on the campus of the University of Mississippi would be truly historic and would ELEVATE the stature of John McCain. McCain either doesn't care or doesn't get it. His failure to appear would insult not just the proud citizens of Mississippi, the entire civil rights movement and the courage and honor of James Meredith, but all Americans who seek justice and who know there can never be justice until the old wounds of our slave past are clensed and healed. Among the oldest and deepest wounds are found on this campus.
This morning I find myself standing up for Mississippi. They and all Americans should be burining with righteous indignation over John McCain's insult.