What is it with Virginia? Del. Frank D. Hargrove Sr., a Republican from Hanover County, Virgina commented on Tuesday, in a newpaper interview, that, “I personally think that our black citizens should get over it,” regarding slavery, and criticizing a proposal for the state to issue an apology for slavery asked, ““Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?”
Wait, it gets, er, better…
So Delegate David Englin from Alexandria – who is Jewish- held up a picture of his 7 year old son, stating that he was now, because of that comment about Christ-killers, “that much more likely to be verbally attacked or physically attacked.” According to Marc Fisher, “‘I didn’t know you were Jewish,’ the delegate said, patting Englin’s arm. ‘And I really don’t care.’ And this about Englin’s response to the Christ-killer remark: ‘I think your skin was a little too thin.’ This brought gasps even from Hargrove’s Republican colleagues.”
Fisher adds an interesting comment though – which caught my eye, “Hargrove is a nice guy, really. He’s the kind of politician every legislature needs, because he says what’s on his mind, and he’s willing to discard orthodoxies. A few years ago, I celebrated Hargrove for breaking with his Republican colleagues and his own past by deciding he could no longer support the death penalty; the possibility of executing the wrong man was just too great. This epiphany came two decades after Hargrove sought, quite seriously, to have Virginia adopt public hangings.”
OKay, I have no idea whether Hargrove is a nice guy with a talent for saying stupid things, or whether he’s a racist maniac, but one might think that one’s legislators ought to have a little more talent for empathy. I have mixed feelings about Fisher’s comment. I think it is good and powerful that Hargrove was able to revisit his own opinion on the death penalty. It does show a certain quality to the guy. I want to encourage people, especially legislators to be able to say they’re wrong (and whoa, way wrong – public hanging???!!!) On the other hand is his opinion on the death penalty enough to mitigate further stupid comments for life? And I’m certainly glad that he struggles like everyone else, but -is he nice? Well, perhaps he is. People say that Ronald Reagan would give you the shirt off his back, and that he was wonderful one on one with people – generous and giving, and so on. But here’s the question: does that in any way defuse any of the awful things he did while in office? does it return people to their jobs? Raise their incomes, make the middle class struggle less?
I don’t know when this nation started judging people for being “nice guys,” instead of their actions. I wonder if this has something to do with our new religion of non-judgmentalism. We seem to think that judging other people is about the worst thing we can do – worse than whatever sin they actually have committed. I honestly don’t get it. Isn’t it the work of society to set standards to which we want people to minimally meet? Why is judging people wrong – surely, if one person wrongs another, we ought to judge them and find their action wanting. Surely we ought to rebuke them and tell them to get it together. Surely we need to be telling our politicians, that guess what, slinging the words, “politically correct” around is no longer a defense against being rude, boorish, sexist, racist and just plain stupid.
Using “Politically correct,” as a slur to get out of being held accountable for our speech can’t go on. If you tell a joke and someone isn’t laughing , then maybe you should just apologise, and not place the blame on the person whom you have offended. If I were queen, all this talk of oversensitivity, thin-skins and “it’s just a joke” would cease immediately.
One more thing. Del. Donald McEachin from Richmond, sponsor of the slavery apology resolution, said, “When I look into the eyes of my 102, soon to be 103 year old grandmother… when I look into my father’s eyes…it’s hard to get over it without an apology.”
Del McEachin also mentioned that as a person of faith, he knows “that when there’s a wrong committed there needs to be an apology,” asked that “other groups” not be brought into it. and took Hargrove to task on hisChristian theology.
The whole awful story here.
an audio of Delegate McEachin here