Open Threads

“To me, it’s a sort of feeling that it’s a nit, that it is not significant, that it’s not a — it’s trying to make a big deal out of something (that) doesn’t amount to diddly,” Barbour said in the interview aired on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Last year, Barbour issued a similar proclamation in his state that did not mention slavery. He also noted that his state has a holiday, Confederate Memorial Day, that has been maintained by Democratic and Republican governors and the state’s majority-Democrat legislature. The state also honors the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Confederate general Robert E. Lee on the same day in January.

In the Confederacy–and Barbour’s Mississippi–you can not celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. by himself, you need to include Bobby Lee to make the Federal Holiday all white right to celebrate. In his CNN interview, Barbour seemed to be annoyed that some folks would harsh the fun that he and many other Southern Republicans have celebrating the Confederacy by mentioning that whole buying and selling human beings thing. In fact, the fat bastard seemed a little pissed off to be asked about it.

Barbour’s proud dismissal of slavery as relevant to the history of the Confederacy shows that once again Mississippi is still the Confederacy’s heart of darkness. And that reminds me of the late great Phil Ochs. Back in the early Sixties he wrote “Here’s to the State of Mississippi” to describe the real evil of racism protected by the “good people of Mississippi”. You can listen to it here (I would post an audio link but FYWP).

Here are the opening lyrics:

Here’s to the state of Mississippi,
For Underneath her borders, the devil draws no lines,
If you drag her muddy river, nameless bodies you will find.
Whoa the fat trees of the forest have hid a thousand crimes,
The calender is lyin’ when it reads the present time.
Whoa here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of,
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of!

Later in the song Ochs’ writes about the Governor of Mississippi in words that are still true today:

And the speeches of the governor are the ravings of a clown

In the early Seventies, Ochs updated this song with new lyrics about Richard Nixon and a few years ago Pearl Jam did a similar update about the Bush II years. One could update this song again and almost keep Phil Ochs’ original lyrics intact. You would only need to swap Republican Party for ‘Mississippi’:

Here’s to the state of the Republican Party,
For Underneath her borders, the devil draws no lines,
If you drag her muddy river, nameless bodies you will find.
Whoa the fat trees of the forest have hid a thousand crimes,
The calender is lyin’ when it reads the present time.
Whoa here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of,
Republican Party find yourself another country to be part of!

I think celebrating Confederate History month with these fuckers might be a little fun.

Cheers