Pages

Jump to bottom

14 comments

1 celticdragon  Wed, Jul 21, 2010 9:04:53pm

I can't even say anything intelligent about this. My God.

2 Dark_Falcon  Wed, Jul 21, 2010 9:05:29pm

This is what hate looks like folks. Never forget it.

3 Obdicut  Wed, Jul 21, 2010 9:05:42pm

Very well put.

My brother just traveled through South and Central america. He was showing pictures he took to a party of friends, including me, the other night. Included among what he showed was a memorial for Argentinian radicals, in the form of their last known picture with their name, their college, and occupation.

It was a memorial because these people had all been 'disappeared' by the government. Obviously, many were dead, but the government never gave the bodies back. They were just taken, gone. (Parenthetically: we supported the right-wing fascists who did this, because they were anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.)

And our friend Diego said, suddenly, "That's my dad."

Turns out his dad was a journalist who was simply taken one day, while Diego's mother was pregnant with him-- and no one ever saw, or admitted to seeing, him again. His crime was being a journalist writing against the state. And my brother had randomly taken a picture of him in that Argentinian town.

That was done by the government, but the tactics, to me, remind me of a lynching. It's unstoppable, it comes from brutality and rage, sadistic absolute power in the moment. And I remember that during the Red Scare in this country, there were FBI agents who wanted to torture communists for information and then kill them-- including academic friends of Oppenheimer.

The paranoia that abounds in the US makes me concerned for what keeps this country strong: real freedom, civic freedoms, freedoms of expression and religion. The reactionary forces I keep expecting to abate, and I still think this is a last gasp, but I worry more and more than I'm wrong.

4 Stanghazi  Wed, Jul 21, 2010 9:08:53pm

Thanks for posting something so difficult.

5 Henchman Ghazi-808  Wed, Jul 21, 2010 9:14:11pm

Solemn and serious Honco salute. It is grotesque and horrific: that is exactly why it should be seen. That is the ultimate end result of hate and racism.

6 Irenicum  Wed, Jul 21, 2010 9:15:42pm

I read only a part of what you posted b/c of the disgusting nature of the events. The most deranged and disgusting parts I left to those who perpetuated these heinous acts. I don't want my mind stained by such Satanic hatred. If folks want a definition of true evil and hatred, then they need to look no further than an American South which says that only some are made in God's image.

7 Dark_Falcon  Wed, Jul 21, 2010 9:19:15pm

re: #6 Irenicum

I read only a part of what you posted b/c of the disgusting nature of the events. The most deranged and disgusting parts I left to those who perpetuated these heinous acts. I don't want my mind stained by such Satanic hatred. If folks want a definition of true evil and hatred, then they need to look no further than an American South which says that only some are made in God's image.

Concur. It's hard for me to even imagine the hate that was behind murders so horrible.

8 Shiplord Kirel  Wed, Jul 21, 2010 9:21:22pm

Things like this affected how I felt about old people when I was young. They seemed so kindly and simple in their ways, yet I always wondered what sort of monster might lurk beneath. Their fundamentalist piety especially fell on deaf ears. Perhaps that isn't fair but there is no doubt that many of the gleeful lynchers were good church-going folk.

I'm 61 now and thinking about my legacy. One of the things of which I am most proud, and most firmly convinced, is that this really is a better world than the one into which I was born. With all its problems and disasters and threats, it is better in almost every respect than the world of 1949, or even 1969. Naturally, there is much worth preserving from the past, and some things that may even be worth reviving. I am a nostalgist about a lot of things; cars, planes, vacuum tube radios, old sci-fi movies, film noir.
Other nostalgists, though, especially the political nostalgists who want to take us back to their imagined golden age, just do not remember what it was really like. Maybe they don't want to remember.

9 BARACK THE VOTE  Wed, Jul 21, 2010 9:54:34pm

Thanks so much for posting this SK. It couldn't have been easy to write; it isn't easy to read. I think it's so important though, and thank you so much for sharing it. I'm favouriting it and I'll tweet it if that's ok.

Just wanted to say that I tremendously value you and your contributions even when we disagree. I hope you know that but sometimes it's nice to hear (or read).
Thanks again. Best, ice

10 (I Stand By What I Said Whatever It Was)  Wed, Jul 21, 2010 11:39:57pm

Some more...

some additional details that probably should not see the light of day.

Might I just ask: Why not?

11 Our Precious Bodily Fluids  Thu, Jul 22, 2010 4:44:48am

Emmet Till, ripe old age of 14.

12 Cheese Eating Victory Monkey  Thu, Jul 22, 2010 5:32:15am

This is a horrifying yet important history lesson.

By the way, not just racism, but anti-semitism led to this sort of barbarism in the south too. In fact, the Anti-Defamation League was formed as a result of the Leo Frank lynching.

13 CuriousLurker  Thu, Jul 22, 2010 6:50:25am

These stories made me feel ill, but I'm glad you posted a page about them because, as DF said, people need to be reminded what hate looks like. Especially when it's allowed free reign (or even encouraged, as it has been lately).

I'm also from TX. Maybe 15 years ago I was on a road trip to Port Lavaca. Somewhere between Cuero & Victoria one of my fellow passengers, an African American woman probably in her late 20's, pointed to a grassy area on the side of the road and told me that's where the Klan used to park their old yellow school bus every week to hand out their literature and preach their hate every week when she was a little girl.

I can't fathom what it must be like for a child to see that. The worst part was the matter of fact way she related the story—growing up, it was just a fact of life for her.

14 wrenchwench  Thu, Jul 22, 2010 9:59:51am

re: #8 Shiplord Kirel

You're about the same age as Shirley Sherrod. Her now-famous talk from last March was given on the 45th anniversary of her father's funeral, and he was murdered by white men who were never indicted. She told of another relative murdered by a white sheriff in the 40's, I believe it was.

This was not very long ago.

As Faulkner said, "The past is never dead. It's not even past."


This page has been archived.
Comments are closed.

Jump to top

Create a PageThis is the LGF Pages posting bookmarklet. To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). Then browse to a site you want to post, select some text on the page to use for a quote, click the bookmarklet, and the Pages posting window will appear with the title, text, and any embedded video or audio files already filled in, ready to go.
Or... you can just click this button to open the Pages posting window right away.
Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT
LGF User's Guide RSS Feeds

Help support Little Green Footballs!

Subscribe now for ad-free access!Register and sign in to a free LGF account before subscribing, and your ad-free access will be automatically enabled.

Donate with
PayPal
Cash.app
Recent PagesClick to refresh