Free at Last

By TAD BARTIMUS

Trent Lott is free at last.

The disgraced former Senate Majority leader may now become the man he says he is. Stripped of political power, he is liberated to grow into the elected official he ought to be.

Lott now has the opportunity to become a genuine public servant, a citizen lawmaker advocating for all Americans, not just southern whites to whom he primarily owes allegiance for their patronage, support and money.

A smart man, surely he'll see the lessons of his humbling, and come to understand in his own cautionary tale that there is pain and hurt in racism, abuses of power have consequences, what goes around really does come around.

For his career to date, Lott has paid lip service to being a son of the New South; now he has a chance to truly become one.

"God has put this burden on me," Lott said, following his resignation as Senate Republican Leader. "I believe He'll show me a way to turn this into good."

Lott was riding high when he paid tribute to retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond at his 100th birthday on Dec. 5th. His comments climaxed a fast-track career spent espousing support of civil rights while often voting against them. Politicians can never seem to learn that eventually they have to put up or shut up. Lott is the latest casualty of that old axiom.

Life never fails to pummel us about the head and shoulders until we learn the lessons we're meant to learn. Among them is that racism is wrong. Another is that what is in our hearts will always wind up coming out of our mouths.

This is a racist country. All of us grow up understanding what racism is and how it works. Many of us profess to reject it, yet practice it daily through our choices of where to live, where to educate our children, where to recreate, socialize and patronize businesses. We recognize its code words and see it when it's kicked under the rug.

Covert racism may be even more damaging than overt racism; when we see somebody in a white robe carrying a torch we know what he or she believes in and stands for. Smiling Jim Crows practice discrimination in the closet, making their racism even more dangerous because it goes unrecognized and therefore unchecked.

Trent Lott needs to stop hiding behind excuses such as, "When you're from Mississippi and you're a conservative and you're a Christian, there are a lot of people that don't like that." Belief in equality has no geographic boundary, political label or religious orientation -- right is right and wrong is wrong. Lott knows the difference.

Because he has nothing left to lose (except a Senate seat he does not deserve), he has a chance to change his footnote in history from disgraced race-baiting politician to hardworking statesman for all Mississippians, regardless of their race, creed or color.

We all know that people change only if they want to. I am the daughter of a genteel southern lady named Dixie Lee who did.

In her dying days, my mother was cared for by the most loving black woman on the planet. She bathed and soothed Dixie Lee and fed her soup a spoonful at a time. "Hush," she'd say, when my mother moaned with hurt, "I'll rub your back and the pain will go away." My mother's roots stretched a century back to Vicksburg, Miss., where her ancestors grew up calling African-Americans "colored."

Although a child of her time and place, to her eternal credit she spent the last year of her life learning hard lessons well. She called her black nurse an angel and together, they spent her final months talking and sharing. When my mother died, her "angel" held her hand.

When the United States Senate reconvenes on Jan. 6th, Sen. Lott, you have your chance to become the man you ought to be. Seize it.

© 2002 The Women Syndicate

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