Jan 17, 2022·edited Jan 17, 2022Liked by Heather Lofthouse
I went to Cornell with Mickey Schwerner. I remember when his body was found, his widow Rita said in a widely cited statement “My husband, Michael Schwerner, did not die in vain. If he and Andrew Goodman had been Negroes, the world would have taken little notice of their deaths. After all, the slaying of a Negro in Mississippi is not news. It is only because my husband and Andrew Goodman were white that the national alarm has been sounded.” Rita, now Rita Bender, is an attorney, last I looked in Washington state.
Having only been eight years old at that time, sitting on my parents ottoman in front of our first remote controlled Zenith
black and white TV with tears in my eyes watching that story on the news, the memory is still clear as a bell. Looking to my mom for some clarity of the unbridled hatred my young heart couldn't fathom. Reading your story brought those tears back. How fitting for this day.
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
Yesterday I watched the clip of those white supremacists marching at the Capital. I still have trouble fathoming the hatred. Here's to the loving memory of Rev. Martin Luther King jr.
Growing up working class, many felt aggrieved in my town. Yet most were white (including me) and therefore privileged (we didn’t see it that way). Your story, and that of your protector Mickey, left me speechless. It was in the 80’s that I probably learned the facts about freedom riders while going to law school at night, and working as a political activist for a state elected official. I felt ashamed for wasps, and disgusted.
However, only recently have I fully realized how dreadfully deep this supremacy hatred is. We learned nothing formally about it growing up. I’m in Ohio, for Pete’s sake, and only a few years ago learned there were KKK rallies in my northeast Ohio county, in our small town. The Historical Society had published it years ago. Nonetheless it was swept under the rug.
“They” are out there. I now look back and realize I was naive, had some hubris myself. The statehouse maneuvers started early in Ohio, going back decades. Stripping back rights and democracy. Some of us fought it. Clever, and mean people can wear you down, and even use your “friends”. Add in money, whoa!
You managed in this article to make politics personal. I am sorry for your unimaginable loss, Robert.
All we can do, like the freedom riders did back then, is double down on our efforts to save our democracy. I think your friend Mickey’s legacy deserves shouted from the rooftop, and before the Senate and House and in Statehouses everywhere.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful and tragic story about Mickey, your protector who died at the hands of the KKK in my state of Mississippi. You have the makings of a memoir in you, I do believe. Sadly, your story is not surprising to me. Mississippi had 581 *reported* lynchings. Many of you may know of Emett Till, who came from Chicago and was brutally murdered in Money Mississippi, which helped to start the Civil Rights movement. My county is 60% black. I see racism all the time, to this day. The Police Department in my town follows me on Twitter, which I don't think is just a coincidence, because of my progressive stances on issues. If you are ever in Mississippi, visit the Civil Rights Museum in Jackson, our capital. It will shake you up and leave you feeling powerless and ill. It is the best MS museum I've been to. You said that activists were emboldened by Freedom Summer. I hope that I can stop shrinking in fear and become emboldened whenever something happens in our state. If need be, I can travel to Jackson with my husband, to protest, which is something I need to do. Back to your story, Mr. Reich. The year before I got married, I befriended someone who was a few years younger than I am, who I had always known, and who was the victim of much bullying in our schools. He is grown now and married. He is what was called a "water head baby" and he has one crossed eye. We became best friends in 2010, 2011. I have never had more fun with anyone in my life. We were like two kids, laughing and joking and making music videos. I will never forget the fun we had that year. This story and your story bring me to a writer and a book that brought tears to my eyes. I have read many books in French by JMG LeClézio, and he wrote a book called Alma, which is one of my favorites. It is about a boy with physical imperfections, and much much more. I know what it is like to be marginalized in a society that values "normalcy." Asians make up only 1% of Mississippians. I attribute that to Chinese and Japanese restaurants in our state. I am in a small majority of people, biracial, mentally ill, and almost reclusive, except for art events that I attend or participate in. We are all connected and need to support friends and family. We must look beyond race and all the things that make us different and come together and fight for the common good. Jim Crow is alive and real again, especially in the South. Voting rights are being taken away and I fear for all my Mississippi people who will find it difficult to vote. I really must do something to help. Thank you for bringing all these things to mind. The worst terrorists we face are the people right next to us, like all my Trumpian neighbors. We must not be afraid to stand up to them. If anyone wants to know the truth about what is happening in Mississippi, follow or go to Mississippi Free Press. They get to the heart of what is actually happening in our state and tell it like it is. We are lucky to have a group of journalists like them. I am filled with emotion now, thinking of all of the atrocities and social injustices that I have begun to ignore, especially at this crucial time in our history. It is critical that we stand up--rise up, and fight for what we know is right and good. I know I cannot be complacent anymore.
I don’t understand why we are letting Republicans frame our fate. Joe Manchin compromised HR 1 to co-write the Freedom to Vote act. He did not want to reform the filibuster. He and others were supposed to get 10 Republicans to vote for his bill. He failed. Now Mitt Romney is saying no one has worked with him to pass the freedom to vote act. What! Nothing is more important then passing the voting rights bills. All this is very disturbing.
Reforms to the filibuster need to happen now.
Republicans don’t care about history. They are all about winning today.
Let’s reform the filibuster so we can pass both voting rights bills. While we are at it, let’s add some more Supreme Court Justices so we can fight in the courts.
Our democracy depends on it.
Thank you for you story. Mickey gave his life for voting rights. Let’s honor his memory by doing all we can do to get all these bills to pass together.
My Mickey and Mary Lou...When I was a young child, my parents purchased a house in the Willow Glen/Lincoln Glen neighborhood. San Jose was no different from a lot of communities of that era: there were covenants on new tracks, agreements that ensured that new housing tracts remained large white neighborhoods. There were exceptions, of course, but most of those in our tract were white--and anticipated that the tract would remain so. At the very edge of the tract and not part of it was a Japanese-American family and their little girl Mickey. The family of Japanese father/white mother was on the edge of acceptability; Mickey herself was born on my exact birthday in one of the camps established for people of Japanese camps--today we would call such places by another name. I went through high school with MIckey; she remained in San Jose and built a good life despite an unconstitutional/unnecessarily rocky start. (NO child should start life as "an enemy of the people." The remarkable thing was that there was no outrage against such internment camps at the time. Mary Lou's family actually moved on into the tract after fleeing a bombed out village in Sicily. None of them spoke English but they didn't speak Italian either so suggesting school in Italian would have been useless to a beautiful little Sicilian 5 year old. At first, it was just Joe and Marry Lous, as Joe's wife--who was pregnant at the time--had tuberculosis and was sent to a hospital until she was well-enough to return home. What I remember about the family was that, for the first year or so, Mary Lou and her father Joe would come down to our house where my Dad would help prepare Joe's tax returns free-of-charge, with Mary Lou's huge help. I guess Mary Lou got the gist of English quite quickly as the returns always went through without a hitch. After a year or so, Joe would come on his own and once the family was reunited they prospered although some of the snootier members of the neighborhood looked down on what were called "Waps" or "Dagos." We could have done so much better if we had accepted all our community members as equals, as equal worthy in God's eyes and our own but the spectre of white supremacy hung heavily on our community. At least my family accepted these neighbors wholeheartedly and gave them the respect that should be the birthright of all--white, black, brown, foreign-born, new immigrants, or visitors to our nation. It's incredible that we are reliving a Civil War that never quite became part of the history that we should be teaching all our children.
Thank you for sharing this heart wrenching and personal story. Hate and racism has never subsided, it continues to be embedded in a large segment of our society today, including in the halls of Congress and state legislatures. The fight must continue for the freedom of all people to vote without obstruction. Hopefully we can find the "freedom fighter" in each of us today, it's desperately needed.
I was a young child during this time but I know the story. You’re personal connection shows that this person represented so much goodness. It is disgraceful that we are spending valuable time fighting this when we need full focus on climate crisis and building a more equitable society.
Demand Fox News, OANN and other dangerous propaganda stations be shut down. We need pressure from people and all companies who air commercials that support these deluded stations. There is some movement…Direct TV removed OANN from its programming.
And we must show up in numbers that overwhelm these monsters of the Traitorous anti-American Republican Cult.
I want to re-post something I posted this morning on Heather Cox Richardson’s letters from an American. It is as follows:
In the early 60s I was going to college in Birmingham Alabama. It was a tumultuous time. There were sit ins, Martin Luther King junior walked across the Pettus bridge in Selma where many people were seriously injured including John Lewis, four beautiful little black girls were killed in the bombing at the 16th St., Baptist Church in Birmingham. I was blackballed from a fraternity I was pledging because I suggested we have black fraternity brothers. I was called into the Dean’s office and asked if I’d be willing to room with one of the black commuter students. The very few black students we had were all commuter students. I agreed. Surprisingly when I walked out of the office everyone on campus seem to be aware of this. In the end my black friend decided not to move onto campus because he was worried about my safety. I was certainly willing to take the risk. Two friends of mine and I drove to Gee’s Bend which is now famous for its quilts. It was an entirely black community and they did not have a phone. We went there to attend church and see the communities’ cucumber farm which was a successful operation. We were invited to spend the night with members of the community and learned about the quilts that have now become so famous. In Alabama there were no front plates on cars at that time and most people had confederate flag on their front plates. I painted my front plate black and wrote the words “promote individual dignity“ in white letters. Surprisingly no issues arose from that and I suppose it was primarily because of the phrasing I used. As a general proposition it was hard to argue with. About two years ago I returned to Birmingham and it was a quite different city. The mayor was black. There was a black history Museum. When we went out to have breakfast one morning, there were black and white patrons, black and white servers and black and white cooks. Strong emotions weld up inside me to see such a wonderful change. As I reflect on my experiences there tears are coming to my eyes because sometimes things you don’t think will change in your lifetime do change.
Martin Luther King junior day is a good day to remember these things. He knew and we know, and ROBERT has reminded us this morning, we still have a very long way to go.
Robert, I am so sorry for this personal loss. MLK Day must always remind you of Michael Schwerner.
I was not aware of the facts surrounding Ronald Reagan's opening rally for president. Not surprised, I had an aversion to him for many reasons, race was one of them but I didn't know about his opening rally. Trump's rally Saturday was held to counter MLK's son who was in Arizona to promote voting rights to counter Sinema's declaration earlier in the week. Trump was there promoting voter suppression. That's right, he held a grievance rally, yes, but he was there to go after voting rights. Rallies, every time I see a Trump rally I'm triggered to Nazi Germany. (I watched it on YouTube, Trump still is shockingly awful.) I bring this up because this racism is backed by the moneyed, plutocratic elite in this country. Example; the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank backed by the DuVos family and other plutocrats, home of John Eastman, just published an essay by a fellow "calling for a counter-revolution against the majority of people living in the United States today [who] can no longer be considered fellow citizens." Who else talks like this? The extremist Republican Party. Who back them, big, dark money. If you can't change laws in this country, how else is any change possible? Through social unrest, violence. Finally, if big corporations weren't benefitting financially they might speak up, but this present environment is extremely lucrative for big business who is supported by the Republican Party. Biden never had a chance....but then I don't know if he ever was willing to take on the billionaire/trillionaire class the way Roosevelt attempted. I also don't know if in Roosevelt's years violence was so widely used against dissent as it is now. Lawmakers are themselves fear for their safety and that of their families.
James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. I'm crying too, but I'm not crying for you Robert - having lost quite a few friends and loved ones myself, I feel I know your loss, the sadness that never leaves, the moving on in spite of things, the unrequited gratitude for love and friendship given us by those who have departed us. I'm sad and demolished over that. However, what pinches my throat closed and wrings the tears from my eyes is the realization of what they lost themselves. Their young lives, their noble ambitions, their families and loved ones, their many future years of life that now will never be, even their hearts beating and the feeling of being alive. It is too much to contemplate without heartbreak, and no less wrenching that death is so common. In honor of MLK Jr, and with deep thanks to you, it's appropriate to call these few honorable people out especially:
I had a high school friend who went down South as part of that summer voter rights movement.
My parents wouldn’t let me go. The message we should get is that the only way you get reforms to happen is by putting yourself on the line. This doesn’t mean you have to risk your life as these brave civil rights workers did. But you do have to support those who stand up. Don’t let them have no one covering their back. Don’t allow their repression to happen in your community. The fascists expect all of us to cower and behave like sheep. We don’t have to. We have the power to elect good troublemakers over blue dog Democrats. If you don’t want this country to crumble, back those who want reform not those out to protect the status quo.
Our sacred rights to vote in free and fair elections are being stripped away from us right before our very eyes and yet the mainstream news media never mention this. They never mention that the cult party, the former Republican party, has not one member who has voted to protect our rights to vote. They are instead skewering President Biden and fail to mention any of the good things he has been trying to do and has done. Although they are not covering our former POTUS and hanging on his every word, they fail to discuss the horror of the things he is doing right now. Over this last weekend he held a hate-filled, maskless rally where he talked about the prejudicial treatment that white folks are getting. Such garbage! The media are a big part of the divisiveness in our country. Thank-you once again, Dr. Reich, for your priceless knowledge and efforts to keep us all informed.
I went to Cornell with Mickey Schwerner. I remember when his body was found, his widow Rita said in a widely cited statement “My husband, Michael Schwerner, did not die in vain. If he and Andrew Goodman had been Negroes, the world would have taken little notice of their deaths. After all, the slaying of a Negro in Mississippi is not news. It is only because my husband and Andrew Goodman were white that the national alarm has been sounded.” Rita, now Rita Bender, is an attorney, last I looked in Washington state.
Having only been eight years old at that time, sitting on my parents ottoman in front of our first remote controlled Zenith
black and white TV with tears in my eyes watching that story on the news, the memory is still clear as a bell. Looking to my mom for some clarity of the unbridled hatred my young heart couldn't fathom. Reading your story brought those tears back. How fitting for this day.
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
Yesterday I watched the clip of those white supremacists marching at the Capital. I still have trouble fathoming the hatred. Here's to the loving memory of Rev. Martin Luther King jr.
Growing up working class, many felt aggrieved in my town. Yet most were white (including me) and therefore privileged (we didn’t see it that way). Your story, and that of your protector Mickey, left me speechless. It was in the 80’s that I probably learned the facts about freedom riders while going to law school at night, and working as a political activist for a state elected official. I felt ashamed for wasps, and disgusted.
However, only recently have I fully realized how dreadfully deep this supremacy hatred is. We learned nothing formally about it growing up. I’m in Ohio, for Pete’s sake, and only a few years ago learned there were KKK rallies in my northeast Ohio county, in our small town. The Historical Society had published it years ago. Nonetheless it was swept under the rug.
“They” are out there. I now look back and realize I was naive, had some hubris myself. The statehouse maneuvers started early in Ohio, going back decades. Stripping back rights and democracy. Some of us fought it. Clever, and mean people can wear you down, and even use your “friends”. Add in money, whoa!
You managed in this article to make politics personal. I am sorry for your unimaginable loss, Robert.
All we can do, like the freedom riders did back then, is double down on our efforts to save our democracy. I think your friend Mickey’s legacy deserves shouted from the rooftop, and before the Senate and House and in Statehouses everywhere.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful and tragic story about Mickey, your protector who died at the hands of the KKK in my state of Mississippi. You have the makings of a memoir in you, I do believe. Sadly, your story is not surprising to me. Mississippi had 581 *reported* lynchings. Many of you may know of Emett Till, who came from Chicago and was brutally murdered in Money Mississippi, which helped to start the Civil Rights movement. My county is 60% black. I see racism all the time, to this day. The Police Department in my town follows me on Twitter, which I don't think is just a coincidence, because of my progressive stances on issues. If you are ever in Mississippi, visit the Civil Rights Museum in Jackson, our capital. It will shake you up and leave you feeling powerless and ill. It is the best MS museum I've been to. You said that activists were emboldened by Freedom Summer. I hope that I can stop shrinking in fear and become emboldened whenever something happens in our state. If need be, I can travel to Jackson with my husband, to protest, which is something I need to do. Back to your story, Mr. Reich. The year before I got married, I befriended someone who was a few years younger than I am, who I had always known, and who was the victim of much bullying in our schools. He is grown now and married. He is what was called a "water head baby" and he has one crossed eye. We became best friends in 2010, 2011. I have never had more fun with anyone in my life. We were like two kids, laughing and joking and making music videos. I will never forget the fun we had that year. This story and your story bring me to a writer and a book that brought tears to my eyes. I have read many books in French by JMG LeClézio, and he wrote a book called Alma, which is one of my favorites. It is about a boy with physical imperfections, and much much more. I know what it is like to be marginalized in a society that values "normalcy." Asians make up only 1% of Mississippians. I attribute that to Chinese and Japanese restaurants in our state. I am in a small majority of people, biracial, mentally ill, and almost reclusive, except for art events that I attend or participate in. We are all connected and need to support friends and family. We must look beyond race and all the things that make us different and come together and fight for the common good. Jim Crow is alive and real again, especially in the South. Voting rights are being taken away and I fear for all my Mississippi people who will find it difficult to vote. I really must do something to help. Thank you for bringing all these things to mind. The worst terrorists we face are the people right next to us, like all my Trumpian neighbors. We must not be afraid to stand up to them. If anyone wants to know the truth about what is happening in Mississippi, follow or go to Mississippi Free Press. They get to the heart of what is actually happening in our state and tell it like it is. We are lucky to have a group of journalists like them. I am filled with emotion now, thinking of all of the atrocities and social injustices that I have begun to ignore, especially at this crucial time in our history. It is critical that we stand up--rise up, and fight for what we know is right and good. I know I cannot be complacent anymore.
I don’t understand why we are letting Republicans frame our fate. Joe Manchin compromised HR 1 to co-write the Freedom to Vote act. He did not want to reform the filibuster. He and others were supposed to get 10 Republicans to vote for his bill. He failed. Now Mitt Romney is saying no one has worked with him to pass the freedom to vote act. What! Nothing is more important then passing the voting rights bills. All this is very disturbing.
Reforms to the filibuster need to happen now.
Republicans don’t care about history. They are all about winning today.
Let’s reform the filibuster so we can pass both voting rights bills. While we are at it, let’s add some more Supreme Court Justices so we can fight in the courts.
Our democracy depends on it.
Thank you for you story. Mickey gave his life for voting rights. Let’s honor his memory by doing all we can do to get all these bills to pass together.
Thank you for all you do!
Wow, I have known about this incident for some time but you personal connection story is powerful. Thanks, Dan Morgan
My Mickey and Mary Lou...When I was a young child, my parents purchased a house in the Willow Glen/Lincoln Glen neighborhood. San Jose was no different from a lot of communities of that era: there were covenants on new tracks, agreements that ensured that new housing tracts remained large white neighborhoods. There were exceptions, of course, but most of those in our tract were white--and anticipated that the tract would remain so. At the very edge of the tract and not part of it was a Japanese-American family and their little girl Mickey. The family of Japanese father/white mother was on the edge of acceptability; Mickey herself was born on my exact birthday in one of the camps established for people of Japanese camps--today we would call such places by another name. I went through high school with MIckey; she remained in San Jose and built a good life despite an unconstitutional/unnecessarily rocky start. (NO child should start life as "an enemy of the people." The remarkable thing was that there was no outrage against such internment camps at the time. Mary Lou's family actually moved on into the tract after fleeing a bombed out village in Sicily. None of them spoke English but they didn't speak Italian either so suggesting school in Italian would have been useless to a beautiful little Sicilian 5 year old. At first, it was just Joe and Marry Lous, as Joe's wife--who was pregnant at the time--had tuberculosis and was sent to a hospital until she was well-enough to return home. What I remember about the family was that, for the first year or so, Mary Lou and her father Joe would come down to our house where my Dad would help prepare Joe's tax returns free-of-charge, with Mary Lou's huge help. I guess Mary Lou got the gist of English quite quickly as the returns always went through without a hitch. After a year or so, Joe would come on his own and once the family was reunited they prospered although some of the snootier members of the neighborhood looked down on what were called "Waps" or "Dagos." We could have done so much better if we had accepted all our community members as equals, as equal worthy in God's eyes and our own but the spectre of white supremacy hung heavily on our community. At least my family accepted these neighbors wholeheartedly and gave them the respect that should be the birthright of all--white, black, brown, foreign-born, new immigrants, or visitors to our nation. It's incredible that we are reliving a Civil War that never quite became part of the history that we should be teaching all our children.
It is very sad that after all these years America is going back to those times!
Thank you for sharing this heart wrenching and personal story. Hate and racism has never subsided, it continues to be embedded in a large segment of our society today, including in the halls of Congress and state legislatures. The fight must continue for the freedom of all people to vote without obstruction. Hopefully we can find the "freedom fighter" in each of us today, it's desperately needed.
I was a young child during this time but I know the story. You’re personal connection shows that this person represented so much goodness. It is disgraceful that we are spending valuable time fighting this when we need full focus on climate crisis and building a more equitable society.
Demand Fox News, OANN and other dangerous propaganda stations be shut down. We need pressure from people and all companies who air commercials that support these deluded stations. There is some movement…Direct TV removed OANN from its programming.
And we must show up in numbers that overwhelm these monsters of the Traitorous anti-American Republican Cult.
I want to re-post something I posted this morning on Heather Cox Richardson’s letters from an American. It is as follows:
In the early 60s I was going to college in Birmingham Alabama. It was a tumultuous time. There were sit ins, Martin Luther King junior walked across the Pettus bridge in Selma where many people were seriously injured including John Lewis, four beautiful little black girls were killed in the bombing at the 16th St., Baptist Church in Birmingham. I was blackballed from a fraternity I was pledging because I suggested we have black fraternity brothers. I was called into the Dean’s office and asked if I’d be willing to room with one of the black commuter students. The very few black students we had were all commuter students. I agreed. Surprisingly when I walked out of the office everyone on campus seem to be aware of this. In the end my black friend decided not to move onto campus because he was worried about my safety. I was certainly willing to take the risk. Two friends of mine and I drove to Gee’s Bend which is now famous for its quilts. It was an entirely black community and they did not have a phone. We went there to attend church and see the communities’ cucumber farm which was a successful operation. We were invited to spend the night with members of the community and learned about the quilts that have now become so famous. In Alabama there were no front plates on cars at that time and most people had confederate flag on their front plates. I painted my front plate black and wrote the words “promote individual dignity“ in white letters. Surprisingly no issues arose from that and I suppose it was primarily because of the phrasing I used. As a general proposition it was hard to argue with. About two years ago I returned to Birmingham and it was a quite different city. The mayor was black. There was a black history Museum. When we went out to have breakfast one morning, there were black and white patrons, black and white servers and black and white cooks. Strong emotions weld up inside me to see such a wonderful change. As I reflect on my experiences there tears are coming to my eyes because sometimes things you don’t think will change in your lifetime do change.
Martin Luther King junior day is a good day to remember these things. He knew and we know, and ROBERT has reminded us this morning, we still have a very long way to go.
Robert, I am so sorry for this personal loss. MLK Day must always remind you of Michael Schwerner.
I was not aware of the facts surrounding Ronald Reagan's opening rally for president. Not surprised, I had an aversion to him for many reasons, race was one of them but I didn't know about his opening rally. Trump's rally Saturday was held to counter MLK's son who was in Arizona to promote voting rights to counter Sinema's declaration earlier in the week. Trump was there promoting voter suppression. That's right, he held a grievance rally, yes, but he was there to go after voting rights. Rallies, every time I see a Trump rally I'm triggered to Nazi Germany. (I watched it on YouTube, Trump still is shockingly awful.) I bring this up because this racism is backed by the moneyed, plutocratic elite in this country. Example; the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank backed by the DuVos family and other plutocrats, home of John Eastman, just published an essay by a fellow "calling for a counter-revolution against the majority of people living in the United States today [who] can no longer be considered fellow citizens." Who else talks like this? The extremist Republican Party. Who back them, big, dark money. If you can't change laws in this country, how else is any change possible? Through social unrest, violence. Finally, if big corporations weren't benefitting financially they might speak up, but this present environment is extremely lucrative for big business who is supported by the Republican Party. Biden never had a chance....but then I don't know if he ever was willing to take on the billionaire/trillionaire class the way Roosevelt attempted. I also don't know if in Roosevelt's years violence was so widely used against dissent as it is now. Lawmakers are themselves fear for their safety and that of their families.
James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. I'm crying too, but I'm not crying for you Robert - having lost quite a few friends and loved ones myself, I feel I know your loss, the sadness that never leaves, the moving on in spite of things, the unrequited gratitude for love and friendship given us by those who have departed us. I'm sad and demolished over that. However, what pinches my throat closed and wrings the tears from my eyes is the realization of what they lost themselves. Their young lives, their noble ambitions, their families and loved ones, their many future years of life that now will never be, even their hearts beating and the feeling of being alive. It is too much to contemplate without heartbreak, and no less wrenching that death is so common. In honor of MLK Jr, and with deep thanks to you, it's appropriate to call these few honorable people out especially:
James Cheney...
Andrew Goodman...
Mickey Schwerner...
Wow! What a story! During my childhood in suburban New Jersey, I had no protection from Jew-hating bullies.
I had a high school friend who went down South as part of that summer voter rights movement.
My parents wouldn’t let me go. The message we should get is that the only way you get reforms to happen is by putting yourself on the line. This doesn’t mean you have to risk your life as these brave civil rights workers did. But you do have to support those who stand up. Don’t let them have no one covering their back. Don’t allow their repression to happen in your community. The fascists expect all of us to cower and behave like sheep. We don’t have to. We have the power to elect good troublemakers over blue dog Democrats. If you don’t want this country to crumble, back those who want reform not those out to protect the status quo.
Our sacred rights to vote in free and fair elections are being stripped away from us right before our very eyes and yet the mainstream news media never mention this. They never mention that the cult party, the former Republican party, has not one member who has voted to protect our rights to vote. They are instead skewering President Biden and fail to mention any of the good things he has been trying to do and has done. Although they are not covering our former POTUS and hanging on his every word, they fail to discuss the horror of the things he is doing right now. Over this last weekend he held a hate-filled, maskless rally where he talked about the prejudicial treatment that white folks are getting. Such garbage! The media are a big part of the divisiveness in our country. Thank-you once again, Dr. Reich, for your priceless knowledge and efforts to keep us all informed.