Common Sense

After much trying of our collective patience, the McLennan County Commissioners Court unanimously approved a resolution condemning the lynchings that were a common occurence in Waco at one time. Lynchings like the death of Jesse Washington, as recounted in the book The First Waco Horror.

The McLennan County Commissioners Court unanimously approved a resolution today that condemns lynchings and the “mob mentality that fostered these despicable acts of violence.”

The action comes one week after commissioners rejected by a 4-to-1 vote a proposed resolution from the Community Race Relations Coalition that included an apology for the failure of past leaders to prevent lynchings.

What good is such a resolution unless some people can see it?

While commissioners approved a shorter resolution than the one offered by the coalition, Precinct 2 Commissioner Lester Gibson asked that the approved resolution be framed and hung in the courthouse rotunda near a mural that depicts a tree with a noose on it.

Commissioners declined that request.

You can make us apologize… but you may never take our lynchin’ tree!

I’m sorry, that was a bad parody of Braveheart’s speech. I think it is fair to say that maybe the commissioners haven’t gotten the part about being sensitive to how these things make some of us in the community feel.

Oh well, at least we got them to act and vote on something other than keeping Cindy Sheehan from camping on the roadside or towing news vans away.