Civil Rights Movement and Any Progress That Has Been Made

I was born and raised in Greece and came to the US the day before the Thanksgiving holiday in 1977. I was completely uneducated and uninformed in any civil rights matters. In Greece my education was consumed by learning ancient Greek, Latin, mathematics, science and Greek politics. Regarding any other matters, well, I was clueless. In Greece, young people between the ages of 17 and 24 can be categorized as: professional students, drunks, gamblers, ignorant, or rabid communists. I can safely say that was more ignorant than drunk.

Music has always been a big part of my life. I can only say that I love music of all types. Friends and relatives are stunned with my knowledge of hip hop/rap music and hip hop/rap artists. If you haven't heard songs by N.W.A. (Straight outta Compton, Express Yourself), well, you are are not doing yourself any favors. By the way, here is a message to the relative who stole my Snoop Dogg CD titled Doggystyle: RETURN IT!!! Another artist that I admire and respect is Nina Simone. There are several songs that she wrote and I like, but, her song Mississippi Goddam tops all of them.

Mississippi Goddamn was released in 1963 and was written in response to the murder of Medgar Evers in Mississippi and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, which killed four black children. Then Alabama's Governor George Wallace was a segregationist and during his 1963 inaugural address he had pledged "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever". Oy!

Recent political events have stirred up such terrible feelings that forced me to write this post.

In Mississippi, since on November 6, 2018, senate candidates failed to capture a majority of the vote and they went to a November 27th runoff. Hyde-Smith ran against Mike Espy, a former Mississippi congressman and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in Clinton's administration and she won. So far so good, because in every race always someone wins, but there is more to this story. Keep reading.



While speaking at a campaign stop, Hyde-Smith described her loyalty to supporters with the following gem: “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.” Hyde-Smith's dismissed the comment as "exaggerated expression of regard". I think they were wrong! All they had to say is that "it is just locker room talk". It worked for Trump and it would have been a slam dunk for Hyde-Smith too.

The Governor of Mississippi defended her comments. Also the President of the United States of America, the great divider-in-chief, defended her comments too.

So, back to Nina Simone's civil rights anthem, Mississippi Goddam. It's been 55 years and the lyrics are still so true. Here are a few verses from Nina's song:

Governor Wallace made me lose my rest

School children sitting in jail

They keep on saying, “Go slow!"

I think every day's gonna be my last

Lord have mercy on this land of mine

They try to say it's a communist plot

Yes you lied to me all these years

Oh but this whole country is full of lies

You're all gonna die and die like flies

If you told me that this song was written in 2018, well, it describes what's happening in the US since 2016.

Feel free to replace "Governor Wallace" with "President Trump". President Trump has publicly stated that he is a Nationalist. To me Trump said "I am a white nationalist" or if you don't have blond hair and white skin with an orange hue, don't come to this country.

"Go slow" sounds a lot like what I hear from Trump's supporters asking to "let him do his job". 

"School children in jail", again Nina hits the nail right on the head because we separated so many immigrant families from their children after they illegally crossed the border. Within my family (including myself) I had several relatives who came to the U.S. illegally. Since these people became citizens, they raised families and have paid lots and lots of dollars in taxes. It is just cycle only this time instead of Greeks or Italians we have Spanish speaking people trying to come to this country for a better tomorrow. Their only fault is that they don't have blonde hair and their skin is not like Trump's, white with an orange hue.

"They try to say it's a communist plot" is what Trump letts up every day about philanthropist George Soros and Hillary Rodham-Clinton. 

"Yes you lied to me all these years", that's right Donald! Since you went down that damn escalator you have been spewing lies about everything and anything. STOP the madness!

"Oh but this whole country is full of lies" even though Giuliani has stated that "truth isn't truth", whatever this means. Trump promised to drain the swamp, but he failed to mention that he is the swamp. God shield us from all the lies, indictments, firings, guilty pleads, and Trump directives. 

"You're all gonna die and die like flies", Trump said it, if you mess with him, the stock market will go down to zero and there will be "violence on many sides".

Starting from the civil rights movement, then to Nina Simone's songs, and now, I am wondering if we have made any progress. Our country is deeply divided. Our president has abandoned treaties and confused our allies. Democrats and Republicans are voting within party lines having the Vice President having to break ties. 

Since 1977, the year I came to the US, I have never seen such a polarized "United" states. But, in Greece they say that "the rotten fish stinks from the head" and nowadays rings so true. Trump has used the word "dumb" and "dummy" 236 times since 2011 and has attacked black people and women regularly. 

In a nutshell, we are in trouble.