Willie Style

If I may play devil's advocate for a moment...

Putting aside the sensitivity of the issue... Why would the Senate even need to ban lynching? Lynching is murder; was murder legal back then, even the murder of "colored" people? I can't help but see this as an empty rhetorical gesture.

I think perhaps such an apology should come from the legislatures in states where lynchings took place as a result of lax law enforcement. Murder isn't a federal offense, be it lynching or gay-bashing, or any other kind of hate-motivated homicide.

Now, having said that, there are of course times where federal intervention is necessary—school integration and slave emancipation jump immediately to mind.

-Scott

Actually, I have already thought about the devil's advocate point-of-view. Why in the hell bring up a resolution like this in 2005?!Was it just to start some shit?! Start a fight?! The left has chosen to make this THE top story of the day and while I obviously read the lefty blogs everyday, I can't help but not feel sympathetic. Yes, lynching was horrible but we don't practice that anymore. Now, get back to real business, Senators!

Given the argument that murdering black people was and is and should be a crime, why weren't those crimes punished? As for the apology, it's not so much the apology itself, but rather the gesture much like when the government apologized and compensated monetarily, the Japanese decendants and families who were rounded up during World War II. If it's good enough for Japanese-Americans, why not our black citizens who were murdered, not simply jailed.

The Houston Chronicle had a good quote from KBH to say that she supports the resolution and that is passed anyways, but also that she was not insensitive to the issue. She went to James Byrd's funeral - the black man that got dragged to death.