Anderson@Large

Living History on Capitol Hill

A good man is hard to find. So, you can imagine my absolute delight to be in the company of more than 200 living legends – Tuskegee Airmen (and here).

Between 1941 and 1946, an estimated 16,000 to 19,000 black men and women served at the Tuskegee Army Airfield:

....anyone–man or woman, military or civilian, black or white–who served at Tuskegee Army Air Field or in any of the programs stemming from the Tuskegee Experience between the years 1941 and 1948 is considered to be a Tuskegee Airman.

The Tuskegee Airmen were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi observed:

In 1942, the African American paper, The Pittsburgh Courier, called for a double victory campaign: victory in the fight against fascism abroad, and victory in the fight against racism at home.

Today, we come together to pay tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen, who with planes and the power of their example – fought against both of these foes, foreign and domestic.

And as we honor them with the Gold Medal today, we take another in a long series of steps toward victory at home.

I caught up with these American heroes at the Congressional Gold Medal Reception in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress. My heart was bursting with pride and gratitude at the sight of black men who “were at the forefront of the struggle for freedom and justice.”

The honorees included Dr. Roscoe C. Brown Jr. and Dr. Bernard S. Proctor, who served with the 99th Fighter Squadron.

Dr. Proctor’s son, Karl, told me: “He is American history.”

Indeed he is. As President Bush said:

The Tuskegee Airmen helped win a war, and you helped change our nation for the better. Yours is the story of the human spirit, and it ends like all great stories do – with wisdom and lessons and hope for tomorrow. And the medal that we confer today means that we're doing a small part to ensure that your story will be told and honored for generations to come.

The nation owes these true patriots an eternal debt.

Supreme Injustice

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Dred Scott Case, the infamous Supreme Court decision that black people “have no rights that white men are bound to respect.”

That perversion of justice was on my mind yesterday as I listened to Sen. Edward Kennedy at the National Press Club, where he gave a policy speech at a forum organized by the Alliance for Justice.

Kennedy denounced “the Bush Administration’s lack of respect for the rule of law. The Administration views our system of justice as merely another arena for furthering its right-wing ideology. It sees the Senate’s constitutional role in confirming those who enforce our laws as a road block to be circumvented whenever possible.”

In advance of Kyle Sampson’s star turn before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kennedy laid out the case against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales:

Each day the evidence grows that the White House fired U.S. attorneys because they balked at using the enormous power of federal law enforcement to serve the partisan ends of the Republican Party. Carol Lam in San Diego had been too vigorous in pursuing corrupt Republican Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham. David Iglesias in New Mexico had refused to indict Democrats before last November’s election. John McKay in the state of Washington had refused to pursue voter fraud charges as a means of challenging a Democrat’s close victory in the 2004 election for governor.

Kennedy further observed:

The havoc the administration has played with the Justice Department is complemented by the damage it has done to the courts. In choosing nominees for the federal courts, particularly the Supreme Court, President Bush selected ideologues and then sought to circumvent the process by which the Senate obtains information about the nominees’ legal views…

The breakdown in the nomination process matters because the Supreme Court decides issues of enormous importance to Americans’ daily lives.

By the end of Kennedy's remarks, I was filled with even more dread about the impact of the Roberts Supreme Court on civil rights, voting rights, and “Equal Justice Under Law.”

Rites of Spring in DC

Ah, springtime in the nation’s capitol. The cherry blossoms are blooming, daffodils are pushing up, and scandals are popping out all over.

The Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight can’t even fire folks whom they have the right to fire for any reason or no reason at all. Federal prosecutors, like all political appointees, serve at the pleasure of the president. End of story.

But from Baghdad to Biloxi, the Bush Administration is a deadly combination of arrogance and incompetence. The incompetence of Alberto Gonzales and the Bushies turned a non-story into front page headlines and fodder for cable news channels.

The political theater on Capitol Hill took a dramatic turn when Gonzales’ senior counselor, Monica M. Goodling, said she would invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refuse to testify before a congressional committee.

As a former political appointee, I think the Justice Department mash-up may be the tip of the iceberg.

There’s a scandal unfolding at the General Services Administration.

Earlier this week, the head of the Smithsonian Institution resigned amid allegations of travel expense irregularities.

Civil servants in the bowels of government buildings can do a lot of damage. So, it’s not a coincidence that political appointees often get nailed over travel abuse. Career employees have access to their records and are able to file anonymous reports with their department’s Inspector General.

They can also leak the records to congressional investigators.

Given the Bush bullies’ contempt for government, it’s reasonable to assume there’s a lot of pent-up anger. Career employees who have cowered in their cubicles for the last six years may be emboldened now that Democrats are in control of Congress.

The coming months may be a rough ride for the Bushies. So, sit back and enjoy the Revenge of the Faceless Bureaucrats.

Race to Execution

Tonight PBS will air the documentary, “Race to Execution,” which looks at the fates of two death row inmates, Robert Tarver and Madison Hobley.

I attended a community screening of this film, narrated by my good friend Harvard Law Prof. Charles J. Ogletree Jr., at the New School last month. It is a compelling examination of how race influences “who lives, who dies, who decides.”

The film’s disturbing findings provide reasonable doubt about the fairness of the criminal justice system:

Race discrimination infects America’s capital punishment system. According to a landmark study regarding race and the death penalty, a black defendant who kills a white victim is up to 30 times more likely to be sentenced to death than a white defendant who kills a black victim…

Race to Execution reveals how, beyond DNA and the issue of innocence, the shameful open secret of America’s capital punishment system is a matter of race. Once a victim’s body is discovered, his or her race—and the race of the accused—deeply influence the legal process: how a crime scene is investigated and the deployment of police resources, the interrogation and arrest of major suspects, how the media portrays the crime and ultimately, the jury selection and sentencing.

To check your local listing, click here.

Slaves to the Past

I’m not one to look back but I have a lifelong interest in slavery. To celebrate my birthday in October, I plan to visit the “Inhuman Traffic: The Business of the Slave Trade” exhibition at the British Museum and the International Slavery Museum, both of which will open later this year.

So, I listened with keen interest as British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed “deep sorrow and regret for our nation’s role in the slave trade and for the unbearable suffering, individually and collectively, it caused.”

Blair’s video message was played at Ghana’s Elmina Castle to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

Several years ago, I took a jitney from Abidjan to the slave castles along the Atlantic coast of Ghana.  And I have to tell you, the House of Slaves on Gorée Island is a quaint B&B compared to Ghana’s slave castles, where captured Africans were warehoused until forced onto slave ships for the perilous journey across the Middle Passage.

The calls for a formal apology are echoing on both sides of the Atlantic. As my friend Jonathan Tilove reports, Rep. Steve Cohen has introduced a resolution “apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African-Americans.”

Jonathan writes:

Cohen says a formal apology by the U.S. government would be a healing act that could generate a revealing examination of slavery’s central role in the making of America and of its legacy for black Americans.

In Georgia, state Rep. Al Williams and other black state legislators are seeking an apology for Georgia’s role in slavery. This bipartisan effort is supported by Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.

At the same time, a bill declaring April as “Confederate History and Heritage Month” is making its way through the Georgia Senate.

Clearly, the “past is not dead. In fact, it’s not even past.”

Spring Break

In the spring a young young-at-heart man’s woman’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love long urban walks.

So, I’m taking a hike. I’ll talk with you when I get back.

Election ’08: It’s On

I’m trying real hard not to let the 2008 presidential campaign become a part of my day-to-day focus.

But like the dueling "1984/Vote Different" attack ads, reality bytes.