No secret is it that the republicans want to have a country that is something akin to what they seem to believe the idyllic world of Wally and the Beav lived in was like.
Rep. Vernon Ehlers [R-MI]: Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
It always amazes me how the Lord manages to turn evil to good. And this is a good example of that; how under the terrible abuse and sin of slavery came the beautiful spirituals that we are honoring in this particular resolution. It is a real national treasure. It is something that I grew up with.
I recall my family, in which we had a number of musicians. Very frequently we were singing Negro spirituals, and in groups at church we would sing Negro spirituals, and yet look where this music came from, out of the terrible black mark on the history of this country when we had slavery over half the Nation. And yet the human response guided by God came out of these people and produced this beautiful, beautiful music. It is a heritage we all have, it is a heritage we must enjoy and, above all, a heritage that we must honor, as we are honoring in this resolution today.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
So, according to Mr. Ehlers (and sort-of buried in the Congressional Record), slavery was a good thing provided by the Lord to provide the wonderful "Negro Spirituals" that he fondly reminices about in the Well of the House.
I'm guessing that he probably did not walk back to his seat in the chamber and don his white hood; he likely waited until he left for the day.
In sort of fairness to Mr. Ehlers another Member used the same phrase, "Negro Spirituals" but not in the same Step-n-Fetchit way that triggers such fond memories for the Honorable Mr. Ehlers:
Growing up in the rural South in the 1950s, we grew up on what was then called the Negro spiritual, and many of these songs, of course, had great meaning, especially the lyrics. I remember, "Follow the Old Man" that is "Coming to Carry Me to Freedom" if you "Follow the Drinking Gourd." Well, gourds supposedly grew northward, and if you followed the direction of the gourd, you would get out of the slave South back during slavery and the abolitionist period, and you would be headed north. And so not only did these songs sound good, not only were they spiritually uplifting as one that I heard on this past Sunday at the Second Baptist Church in Maywood, Illinois, but they also were didactic; they were teaching and inspirational.
Those words were spoken by Rep. Danny Davis of Illinois, an African-American as a way of explaining the terminology. I doubt he was referring to fond memories of gathering around the whites-only drinking fountain and singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot".
It sort of reminds me of that famous scene in "Blazing Saddles" where the railroad bosses led by Burton Gilliam's character ("Lyle"), try to get the workers to sing one of them "... Work songs". Exactly which group came off looking like the idiots there? Oh, the republicans railroad bosses.
I get no kick from Champagne. But this strikes me as sort of grimly amusing, in that I love to watch a fascist make a fool of themselves way.
