Friday, May 14, 2004

Posted here Friday, May 14, 2004 at 4:55:09 PM     The last week I've spent time watching c-span on the Internet, mostly for the Senate and House hearings on Iraq. I've been impressed by the qualities of some folks I did not know, and distressed by the general dumbing down of some of the congress. But yesterday I accidentally tuned into to a senate session with Senator Hollings giving a speech on the history of the civil rights movement and brown vs Board of education. I was shocked by his capacity, his memory, his passion  - and the floor was empty. Delivered without notes, he knew the names, dates, and details of the personal involvement of people across the spectrum, such as the feelings of a group of black children walking nine miles to school being passed by the white school bus. He ended by saying that from the beginning he heard "this will take ten years, to end segregation" then "twenty years," "thirty years" and here it is fifty years later and that school is ninety nine percent black today." To have such civilized and knowledgeable people in a Senate that does not listen, yet feels powerless in the face of large scale changes - well, seems to me this is a deep waste of something precious. ********