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An
Open Letter to Trent Lott
July 17, 2001
by
Myra Bronstein
Senator
Trent Lott
487 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Senator
Lott,
I want you
to know that you are truly an inspiration. Now that you have
called for an IRS "review" of the NAACP's tax status, in a
blatant retaliatory snit for their frankness about Bush's
obvious racism, I have joined the NAACP. I had been contemplating
this action ever since the GOP blocked African Americans from
voting, as part of the successful strategy to steal the presidency.
Not only was I devastated by the loss of our democratic process,
I was outraged that fellow citizens were used en masse to
deprive Americans of our most basic rights. And yet it was
your bullying threats to use a branch of government to punish
citizens for speaking out that spurred me to join the NAACP.
I must
say that so far I'm thrilled to be a member. The first thing
I did was read Chairman Bond's great speech. Incidentally,
for the befuddled Ari Fleischer's of the GOP, who rant that
remarks such as Mr. Bond's were not made "when Kweisi Mfume
was NAACP president,'' um, Mr. Mfume is currently NAACP President
& CEO as he has been since 1995. Mr. Bond has been NAACP Chairman
since 1998. I guess no one briefed Fleisher on these late-breaking
developments. But then this ignorance of the leadership structure
of the NAACP, an organization that has worked for equality
for 92 years, is typical of the utter disregard your party
displays for their goals and members.
Both leaders
dared to exercise their First Amendment rights at the NAACP's
annual convention recently. Among Chairman Bond's remarks
that led you to sic the IRS on them:
"In the
Sunshine State, which cast a long shadow over Election 2000,
more than a million African-Americans voted, accounting for
more than 15 percent of the total vote, a state record. But
we know that the black share of the vote - in Florida and
elsewhere - should have been higher. And we know the consequences
could not have been greater. Witness after witness told the
sorry story of voter suppression and nullification in Florida
at NAACP hearings after the election. They described police
stops near polling places, racially motivated voter purges,
demands for multiple forms of identification from persons
who had voted for decades, long-time voters' names missing
from the rolls, and other examples of black votes prevented
from being counted. The US Commission on Civil Rights has
found that African-American voters in Florida were nearly
ten times more likely than white voters to have their ballots
rejected.
These tactics
weren't restricted to Florida. Nationally, more than 2 million
presidential votes went uncounted, and more ballots were discarded
in Illinois than in Florida. And these tactics weren't restricted
to black precincts. Other minority voters in Florida and elsewhere
suffered as well..We heard before the election, 'Your vote
counts!' We learned after the election that your vote might
not be counted. This is unacceptable. This is un-American."
Among Mr.
Mfume's comments that exposed them to possible IRS retaliation:
"We so
desperately need men and women in and out of government through
all walks of life who understand what it means to stand up
and to speak out for that which is right, and to fight back
against that which is wrong. To mean it when we say racism
and sexism and anti-Semitism are wrong. To know as a matter
of critical fact that black bigotry is just as cruel and evil
as white bigotry and that bigots come in all colors. To understand
in our heart of hearts that gay bashing, union bashing, immigrant
basing, city bashing and people bashing deplete us as a nation
and rob us of that precious rendezvous that we have with destiny."
At the risk
of incurring a vengeful IRS audit of my own for daring to
exercise free speech, their remarks make me proud to be a
member. Every word they speak is the truth. I hope that everyone
who recognizes the truth of their words joins the NAACP. As
Chairman Bond said in closing: "The NAACP has a deep soul.
And we have a deep voice - speaking truth to power!"
Myra Bronstein
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