A denunciation of terrorism that is still relevant today

Credit: AJC

Credit: AJC

Let’s be realistic.

It’s a harvest. It is the harvest of those sown.

It is the harvest of contempt for the courts and encouragement of citizens to defy the law on the part of many Southern politicians. It would be the height of irony, for example, if one of the four or five southern governors deplored this bombing. It would be grimly humorous if some state attorneys general issued statements of regret. And it will be quite a task for some editors, columnists and commentators, who have declared that our courts have no jurisdiction and that the people should refuse to accept its authority now to deplore.

It is not possible to preach anarchy and restrict it.

Certainly, no one said go bomb a Jewish temple or a school.

Open doors

But it must be understood that when leaders in high places fail, to any degree, to support the constituted authority, it opens the doors to all those who wish to take justice into their hands.

There will, of course, be the usual act of carefully parting skirts on the part of those in high places.

“It’s horrible,” they will exclaim. “How terrible. Something must be done.”

But the record stands. The extremists of the citizens’ councils, the political leaders who, in violent and inflammatory terms, repudiated their oaths and opposed due process, helped unleash this flood of hatred and bombing.

This too is a harvest of these so-called Christian ministers who have chosen to preach hatred rather than compassion. Let them now find pious words and raise their hands to deplore the bombing of a synagogue.

You are not preaching or encouraging hatred towards black people and hoping to limit it to this area. It’s a very old story. This is a phenomenon that has been repeated over and over again throughout history. When the wolves of hatred are unleashed on one people, no one is safe.

The hatred and anarchy of those in power unleashes the yellow rats and encourages the madmen and neurotics who print and distribute hateful pamphlets, who shout that Franklin Roosevelt is Jewish; who denounce the Supreme Court as communist and controlled by Jewish influences.

Harvest

This series of bombings is also the harvest of something else.

One of the people linked to the attack called a news service early Sunday morning to say the job would be finished. It must have been committed, he said, by the Confederate underground.

The Confederacy and the men who led it are revered by millions. Its leaders returned to the Union and insisted that the future be committed to building a stronger America. This was especially true of General Robert E. Lee. Time and again he urged his students at the University of Washington to forget the war between the states and help build a bigger, stronger union.

But for too many years now, we have watched the Confederate flag and the emotions of that great war become the property of men incapable of tying the shoes of those who fought for it. Some of them were just childish and immature. Others have perverted and commercialized the flag by making the stars and bars, as well as the Confederacy itself, a symbol of hatred and bombing.

For a long time now, there has been a need for all Americans to stand up and be on the side of the law and following due process – even when it goes against their personal beliefs and emotions. It’s late. But there is still time.