Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cbclark4]

Robert Byrd (Third in line for the Presidency) Exalted Cyclops of the KKK.

Has been hospitalized.

Maybe all his sins have caught up with him.

"I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side".
- Robert Byrd

"The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia" and "in every state in the nation."
- Robert Byrd

[Ya-ta Boy]

This rap has been discussed several times on this board before, so I won't go back and repeat it, but it is quite an unfair characterization of him.

[cbclark4]

Apologist.

Did I misquote him?

Is he not in the hospital?

He is not 3rd in line?

What is mischaracterized?

"There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time."
- Robert Byrd

The beeps are the "N" word.

[CentralCali]

[dogbert]

More egregious than his Klan membership is his advocacy of pork-barrel politics, which has benefitted West Virginia far more than it deserves, at the expense of other states and just plain common sense.

RIP, jackass.

[gypsyfish]

[Gatsby]

I second the remarks of gypsyfish.

Sen. Byrd has been an unusually articulate opponent of the policies of George Bush, even when the Democrats were out of power, and when such opposition would have cost his state some of those pork barrel benefits. We could use some younger senators with the courage of Sen. Byrd.

BTW, did you know he is a relative of Admiral Richard Byrd?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiral_Byrd

The problem is not the Klan, anymore; it's ancient history. It's the politics of hate, which, unfortunately, is far from extinct in America.

In case you haven't noticed, the United States has changed. And it's the courage and decency of politicians like Byrd and George Wallace, who admitted without equivocation their mistakes on the issue of race, that have helped to change the attitudes of some who were once racists.

I just wish that there had been more leadership in the 1940s and 1950s from Southern politicians and business leaders against racism. But my understanding of history is that those politicians who did speak out were defeated. Wallace originally was opposed to racism when he first ran, was defeated, and quickly changed his stripes.

But as I say, the issue is not racism or the clan, it is the politics of hate, which often uses religion as a wedge, that is the contemporary problem. But my understanding is that even that is falling out of favor, the religious right having realized they were burned by Bush and his Republican buddies.

But the right wing Republican zealots will be back in 20 or 30 years peddling the same old garbage disguised by some cheap perfume.

I am a conservative at heart, but read up on history and you will find that the Republican Party has a sordid past.

[Rteacher]

I think Senator Byrd has largely overcome the racist conditioning of his youth and has distinguished himself as a real statesman.

In a March 4, 2001 interview with Tony Snow, Byrd said of race relations:

"They're much, much better than they've ever been in my lifetime.... I think we talk about race too much. I think those problems are largely behind us ... I just think we talk so much about it that we help to create somewhat of an illusion. I think we try to have good will. My old mom told me, 'Robert, you can't go to heaven if you hate anybody.' We practice that. There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I'm going to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I'd just as soon quit talking about it so much."

Byrd's use of the term "nigger" created immediate controversy, When asked about it, Byrd apologized for the language: " 'I apologize for the characterization I used on this program,' he said. 'The phrase dates back to my boyhood and has no place in today's society. [...] 'In my attempt to articulate strongly held feelings, I may have offended people.' "[33]

Byrd has since explicitly renounced his earlier views on racial segregation. Byrd said that he regrets filibustering and voting against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and would change it if he had the opportunity. In explanation of his vote he said, "We who were born in a southern environment...ought to get ahead of the curve and take down those [white only] signs ourselves. We shouldn't need a law to require us to do it."[citation needed] Byrd, however, said that he realized people were too set in their ways to integrate society on their own and therefore the Civil Rights Act became necessary.[citation needed] Byrd has also said that his views changed most dramatically after his teen-age grandson was killed in a 1982 traffic accident, which put him in a deep emotional valley." The death of my grandson caused me to stop and think," said Byrd, adding he came to realize that black people love their children as much as he does his...

...In the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP)[44] Congressional Report Card for the 108th Congress (spanning the 2003�2004 congressional session), Byrd was awarded with an approval rating of 100% for favoring the NAACP's position in all 33 bills presented to the United States Senate regarding issues of their concern. Only 16 other Senators of the same session matched this approval rating. In June 2005, Byrd[45] proposed an additional $10 million in federal funding for the Martin Luther King memorial in Washington, D.C., remarking that "With the passage of time, we have come to learn that his Dream was the American Dream, and few ever expressed it more eloquently..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrd

[cbclark4]

[dogbert]