A Long Tuesday
Southern Poverty Law Center: I was very impressed with the work they do at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Who knew? I didn’t even know there was a Civil Rights Memorial anywhere. The memorial is very well done, the work of Maya Lin, architect of the Vietnam Memorial.
This inscription is very special to me, as Dr. King included it in every one of his speeches and I have learned to listen for it. (Confession: while we were in church Sunday, I spent some time looking up the original verse in Amos 4:24)
If I had my life to live over again, I would go to law school instead of library school and work at a place such as this, with the ultimate goal of becoming a Supreme Court justice. Too late for me, but maybe not for my son Alexander who is a rising senior philosophy major at the University of Michigan.
Selma: very sad, very poor, seemingly unchanged. I was among those who were very uncomfortable walking the streets in the George Washington Carver district. I wasn’t afraid, but I felt embarrassed that our group was so intrusive in the lives of the people there. Dr. Hattery warned us not to look at them like we were at the zoo, but it was not possible to look like anything other than we were, rich American tourists with bling bling and cameras around our necks, gawking at the sites.
The long ride to Mississippi was over before we knew it and we faced the ironic contrast of the desolate hurricane-damaged landscape with the glitz of the newly rebuilt Hollywood Casino. A sociologist would perhaps have something to say about the fact that there is always money in America to rebuild casinos while the people of the town are still waiting for FEMA trailers and insurance settlements.
The surprise of the trip occurred after we checked into the hotel and I went with Ronnie, our driver, to scope out the location of the library and the places we would visit tomorrow. We drove along the Beach Road, looking like the surface of the moon almost two years after Katrina. In the course of the trip, Ronnie opened up to share his political views, predicting that history would be made in the next election when the first woman would be elected President of the United States. And further, he would help work for Hillary to make it so. Go Ronnie!
