The more this sits in the sun the more it stinks: The Siegelman release has brought out all sorts of backstory that many of us didn't know - and I'm learning about a slew of writers who've already worked hard to expose all this but who until now have't had much success. It reminds me of the Leo Frank Lynchers story.

 My friend Stephen Goldfarb called me one day in 2000 while I was still reeling from the stolen election and asked me to build him a website. It was to be about a document he had discovered that pointed to new evidence in the 75 year old case of Leo Frank, who was lynched in Marietta, Georgia in 1915 by a secret mob of well known people in the dark of night for a crime it's pretty clear he didn't commit.

My friend Stephen had found this new evidence and had for TEN YEARS been trying to interest local historians and newspapers in the story.No one wanted to touch it because it involved prominent people who wielded power in the area and it was a stain on the reuptation of some of the big newsppaers in the area for a long time. His request to build a webiste was met by me with some trepidation considering that these were the frightening days of the Gingrich revolution and of Bob Barr (who had successfully lynched Bill Clinton in the media in my opinion -- and who to be fair has since come full circle as has to some extent Gingrich) but at that time the general population was in a mindset that wouldn't hear anything that didn't fit their mass hysteria.

I also knew that another reason that this story was not going to be popular was that some of the descendants of these lynchers who were named on my friend's discovered list were prominent people and I was not anxious to anger them. So I built the webiste anonymously. I never put my name on it until five years later when it wasn't on anyone's radar screen. I built the website and forgot about it until suddenly it began to be exposed in the mainstream media all over the world. I learned a great deal during this experience, and received a barrage of emails from people everywhere thanking us for exposing this information.

I spent a good bit of time pondering how it was that a group of men who were known to be involved behind the scenes could have orchestrated this lynching and even though it was carried out by a second group the lynchers were never caught, never prosecuted and frankly never even named until our website came out. It was CRONYISM at its worst. That same cronyism still operates today and is at the heart of what has happened to Don Siegelman.

The site is gone now, but there are many articles that still refer to it. The site itself was the topic -my friend made the front page of the Wall Street Journal and was interviewd on NPR. I was NEVER mentioned, which is fine by me. Our site is referred to in several books and has inspired all sorts of things including a juvenile book on the case. My reason for bringing it up is to look squarely at the phenomenon of secrets that exist in broad daylight and how hard it is to get most people to believe that evil exsits right in front of their face.

We are not at all reluctant to believe, like the masses who celebrated the lyncing of Leo Frank, that strangers in our midst are guilty of all sorts of evils. Leo was a likely victim for several reasons - first of all he was a Jew and the myths in that part of Georgia among the common folk were well known concering jewish evils. Leo was also a bit strange in his demeanor and appearance. One of the books on the case is called A Jew Accused and looks at the behavior of both Jews and the general population when a Jew is accused of a crime. Black people the world over could identify with this. They are ALWAYS suspect - the darker the skin the more automatic the suspicion of guilt - comedians for years have used the image of a black man running through a white neighborhood as an instant mental image that works as a joke. I'

What I'm getting at is that Alabama politicians are also suspect in the same way. Thanks to a few really bad apples and a tendence to self-reinforce these stereotypes, Alabama politicians have been perceived in the larger media  as automatically crooked. That is patently unfair, and shows not only laziness on the part of the speaker who assumes that all Alabama politicians are corrupt but an ignorance that frankly is unacceptable in today's world.

How about a song break about now? Here's Randy Newman on YouTube...

We don't have time for such ignorance any longer. Don's case should be a wake up call to all of us that to remain silent is to condone, to refuse to speak up or speak out is to help hold the rope, to chuckle at the jokes and not call out those who are repeating erroneous rumors and unquestioned assumptions is to to invite the devil to dance. I know it's easier to walk away - I've done it many times myself. It's also easier to hide behind an anonymous blog post or email than to speak out in public, with your name and address as part of the information you provide. My friends Lynn and Ernie Sewell are heroes in my book for being tireless writers to the Mobile papers when they find errors. I've NEVER written a letter to the editor. In the years I've been a reader of Salon.com I've NEVER (or maybe only once or twice) posted a response to the forums even though I read them religiously for years and considered it as essential to my life as eating and sleeping.

I get very few comments on this site probably because I tend to go in so many directions, but I wonder what I would do if I did get lots of responses. I suspect I'm better at starting a fire than keeping one going. That's why I was so proud of my boss recently when he posted some poems to his poetry email  (another one here) list that were pretty controversial and in doing so he got a few responses that were not in agreement with the ideas expressed in his poems. Rather than back down or avoid a dialogue, he actually challenged and confronted the issues involved without losing the friendships with those responders. It consumed him for weeks, and I know he was concerned that he should soft-pedal h is responses, but I am proud to say he didn't back down, and the conversation was fruitful I think to everyone involved.

Now that we've got the conversation going on what happened to Don Siegelman, I hope we'll keep the conversation going, engaging those who haven't heard all the allegations and what might be going on behind the scenes. The way we got into this Bush nightmare is by preying on the rational expectations of Americans that things like "that" could not happen here. They can, and they do.

I was listening to the Ambassador to China the other day being interviewed on NPR, and when he got through repeating the propaganda he's paid to parrot, the only thing I could think of was how much he sounded just like Bush. "There's nothing wrong with the economy" - "The Surge is working" -  etc. Bush can't possibly even know what is going on in the world. They don't want him to know - I wrote a poem about his lack of curiosity once.

Incurious George

 

He glances at the headlines

No need to read he says

They brief me every morning

And then it all makes sense

 

No need to read the headlines

They tell me what to do

And then it all makes sense

There’s been a military coup

 

They tell me what to do

Economics, law, defense

There’s been a coup, that’s true

And now it all makes sense

 

Economics, law, defense

They brief me every morning

And though it all makes sense

I find it very boring

 

As a state I find Alabama's lack of curiosity part of the problem as well. I hope that the recent flurry of blog posts and stories brings out the voices that have been working to get the truth out for a long time. I celebrate writers and artists who have tried to bring change to this state and propose that we continue to share good posts, good blogs, good letters to the editor, and good poems with each other. There are numerous websites out there and as I find them I'll add them to my favorites link at the right. If you know of more send them to me. And if you want to comment, do so. I welcome it. My email address is also in the right hand column if you want to email me privately.

Here's another blog that you need to see concerning the Siegelman case - sent to me by a new friend from my boss's mailing list : Thanks Peggy!This one's called At Largely. Another one sent to me by Peggy that I didn't know about is called Flashpoint and he also has a nice link to other Alabama blogs. Peggy sent me an email yesterday in which she described some of the ways she's trying to make a difference:

 I plan to continue the same activities that I have engaged in thus far--writing our senators and national figures on Congress.org. Recently I purchased a Soapbox spot and posted comments entitled "Red flags in a red state."  For a few dollars extra, I was able to tract the number of hits and actions taken. I have gotten over two hundred hits, but less than ten actions. I plan to take this approach again and place more emphasis on the importance of taking an action.
 
Heck, I even wrote the First Lady after she supported the Tibetan Monks and suggested that she take a look at the Siegelman case.  I have written in support of everyone that has taken positive steps such as Sixty Minutes and have received some correspondence back, a very nice note from Sixty Minutes assuring me that my letter would be shared with not just the Sixty Minute producers, but the executive board of the CBS News as well.  I have duked it out with some real Rovian dragons on a few blogs, which actually challenged me to research further to support some key points. I send encouraging letters to Honorable John Conyers and Senator Leahy regularly via email that they continue to hold Miers, Bolten, and Rove in defiance of the law for not testifying before the Judiciary Committee.  I have written Don, Lorie, and Dana over the past nine weeks and of course donated to the legal fund.   One of my favorite strategies now is when anyone sends me a political or religious email, I send them an update on Don.  They either respond favorably, or they stop sending me junk mail. Either way I am happy.

I LOVE the idea of responding to one of the ubiquitous religious emails with something like what she's doing. Excellent, Peggy! I'd love to know what others have done to make a small dent in the thick wall of ignorance that seems to surround this state. Let me know what you do...I'll post it here.

10:39:45 AM