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June 20, 2005
I Regret I was Harmed
Does this sound like an apology to you? All I hear is "I regret I made a choice that has turned out to be embarassing to me."
Sen. Robert C. Byrd's new memoir reveals both his encyclopedic knowledge of political history and the unlikely inspiration that helped launch his own political career: A Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan."It has emerged throughout my life to haunt and embarrass me, and has taught me in a very graphic way what one major mistake can do to one's life, career and reputation," the West Virginia Democrat says in an autobiography being released Monday. "I displayed very bad judgment, due to immaturity and a lack of seasoned reasoning."
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Byrd says he never resented blacks, Catholics or Jews, but he failed to "examine the full meaning and impact of the ugly prejudice behind the positive, pro-American veneer."
"My only explanation for the entire episode is that I was sorely afflicted with tunnel vision — a jejune and immature outlook — seeing only what I wanted to see because I thought the Klan could provide an outlet for my talents and ambitions."
Here's another excerpt from another piece on Byrd's newly-published memoirs:
In the early 1940s, a politically ambitious butcher from West Virginia named Bob Byrd recruited 150 of his friends and associates to form a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. After Byrd had collected the $10 joining fee and $3 charge for a robe and hood from every applicant, the "Grand Dragon" for the mid-Atlantic states came down to tiny Crab Orchard, W.Va., to officially organize the chapter....
"It has emerged throughout my life to haunt and embarrass me and has taught me in a very graphic way what one major mistake can do to one's life, career, and reputation," Byrd wrote in a new memoir -- "Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields" -- that will be published tomorrow by West Virginia University Press.
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Byrd said in an interview last week that he never intended for his book to provide "finite details" of his Klan activities, but to show young people that there are serious consequences to one's choices and that "you can rise above your past."
But the only consequences Sen. Bryd seems to be concerned are the consequences for him.
Uncoincidentally, as the Post piece points out, he downplays his later racist activities, including his much later efforts against the integration of the military forces where he wrote that he would never fight in the armed forces "with a Negro by my side," and that "Rather I should die a thousand times, and see old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels." He also filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and voted against Thurgood Marshall.
All this is not to say a man should not be allowed to move on from having succumbed to the dominant ideology of his era. However, there is a difference between a sincere apology and a cover-up. Sen. Bryd standard line, which he repeated last week, saying that "I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times." would ring a lot more true if he started showing concern for the consequences of his actions on others, not just on him. Maybe then he could also stop downplaying the truth of the extent of his activities because he would then be confronting his past, rather than running from it.
Posted by zeynep at June 20, 2005 07:40 AM