Mark Byron and Ben Domenech both have blog entries discussing Julian Bond and the NAACP convention (and Ben provides a link to the Washington Times news coverage).
Here is the text of the Ware Lecture, delivered by Julian Bond at the Unitarian Universalist Association's 2003 General Assembly last month.
Professor Bond is very angry, and he lets loose with a lot of unchecked, emotional rhetoric. Much of this lecture fisks itself. I nearly fell out of my chair when I read this statement:
Senator Trent Lott uncovered a running sore, that not coincidentally is also almost 50 years old, that if allowed to fester, threatens to imperil our very democracy.It is the dependence of the Republican Party on the politics of racial division to win elections and gain power. By playing the race card in election after election, they've appealed to the dark underside of American culture, to the minority of Americans who reject democracy and equality.
Julian bond accuses Republicans of playing The Race Card! And this comes from the chairman of the organization that accused Presidential-candidate Bush of complicity in the murder of James Byrd because Texas didn't have hate crime laws. And the hate-crime mentality would have you believe that the lack of hate crime laws constitutes evidence of inequality, even though James Byrd's murderers were convicted and given death sentences or life (and they were white too-so there is no racism in that sentencing). Julian Bond is too blind with rage to speak compentently here.
I think I know what Bond is speaking of in his criticism of those "who reject democracy and equality". He is criticizing those who think that convicted felons should not be allowed to vote because that would undermine respect for the rule of law. He is criticizing those who respect equality under the law and equality of opportunity, but also respect freedom, individual rights, and the right of individuals to pursue their goals, and realize that government programs that assure things like equality of paycheck and equality of standard of life will compromise those values.
Posted by joelfuhrmann at July 16, 2003 12:03 AM