Dialogues and monologues
By Brandon Astor Jones
"I thought [that] the original idea was for a dialogue, not a monologue, and it was [not] just the liberals getting together to congratulate themselves on their bias and prejudice ..." — Newt Gingrich
In the United States, I hear that some ultraconservatives are feeling slighted because the president's racial reconciliation panel is not begging them to join in on the proposed discussions. It is good to see that the president's appointee, John Hope Franklin, is not grovelling at their feet. What a refreshing presidential appointee he has become. I wish there were a lot more like him.
If you want a discussion on how to milk cows, you send for someone who has spent their working life on a Wisconsin dairy farm. If you want to grow golden delicious apples, you send for someone who has spent their life working in a Washington state apple orchard. If you want to learn how to drill oil wells, you send for a Texan who has been drilling oil wells all of her or his life.
If you want to know how to sell your people out (here, read African-Americans) you send for the like of Clarence Thomas, Shelby Steele, Ward Connerly and other conservative lackeys like them. History proves that when you have a specific need, your best bet is to call on the services of experts. It is that simple.
So then, if you are trying to bridge the USA's racial divide, and have the sincere hope of achieving racial reconciliation and healing, why would you send for the likes of Newt Gingrich? He is a man who has spent most of his political life in Georgia polarising the races, from his bully pulpit as speaker of the House of Representatives.
When you consider his inflexible racist attitude, and the multitude of Ku Klux Klanspeople who dote on his every word all across the US, I would think he has said enough already. Those who are complaining should be praising John Franklin's every move. Only the very naive would think that they could have a racially constructive dialogue with a man whose political business is the perpetuation of racially divisive monologues.
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G3-77, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA. Brandon and his friends are trying to raise funds to pay for a lawyer for his appeal. If you can help, please make cheques payable to the Brandon Astor Jones Defence Account and post to 41 Neutral St, North Sydney NSW 2060, or any Commonwealth Bank, account No. 2127 1003 7638.]