Unfortunate Metaphor of the Day
 Alabama Republican Shelby, commenting on calls for Trent Lott's removal as Republican leader for his insensitivity to America's segregationist past, quoted today in The New York Times:
Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama told CNN he thought there would have to be a meeting of the Senate Republicans. "I think we have to do this," he said. "Senator Lott has a lot to prove." But he added that Mr. Lott still has his confidence. "I don't think we should lynch him," he said.
The grim photo at right documents the August 1930 murder of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. A crowd of white folks grin and gawk.
One of the many, many reasons to love my father is the fact that, at his wedding in 1953 in Salem, Oregon, the best man was an African-American, his Air Force buddy Dan Hegler. It's striking to look at the wedding photos: Hegler is the only African-American at the gathering. Considering that Truman had integrated the armed services only four years before, I bet that took a little bit of bravery on both my father's and Hegler's parts. Thank God I lucked into such parents. Forgive me my unseemly self-congratulation as I compare my parents to Trent Lott's mother, as recounted in yesterday's story in the Times:
Back at home, the turmoil at Ole Miss was roiling Pascagoula and even Mr. Lott's family. Ira Harkey Jr., editor of The Pascagoula Chronicle, was writing editorials denouncing racial violence and criticizing Barnett for fighting the integration of Ole Miss. In response, a group of local people -- many of them shipyard workers, Mr. Harkey says -- harassed him for months, threatening violence and even shooting out his office windows.
Some time later, Mr. Harkey said, he received a letter from a woman who told him that if he did not publish her letter it would prove "you are truly an integrationist and I hope you not only get a hole through your office door but through your stupid head." It was signed Iona W. Lott -- Mr. Lott's mother.
"I called her, asked if she'd sent it to me, and she said she certainly had sent it to me and she meant every word," said Mr. Harkey, now 84.
12:38:10 PM 
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CNN is reporting on TV right now that Tennessee's Bill Frist, head of
the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, is supporting Don Nickles for Senate Republican Leader, or at least is supporting Nickles's call for a new election -- I don't think it's quite clear which. 