Common Sense

As promised, County Commissioner Gibson proposed that the unanimously adopted resolution decrying the atrocity that was lynching be displayed in the courthouse next to a mural of Waco’s infamous hanging tree. As promised, the other commissioners turned him down flat.

The court voted 3-1 to deny a proposal by Precinct 2 Commissioner Lester Gibson to place a framed copy of the new resolution on the first floor of the courthouse to offset the painting of the noose, which Gibson called one of the most frightening symbols of racial injustice.

“That noose has long been considered a symbol of workplace harassment,” Gibson said. “That mural without any type of explanation is going to remain a problem for this county.”

Earlier this month, commissioners dismissed a 750-word resolution from the coalition that included an apology for unlawful lynchings and penned a resolution of their own.

Gibson started out pretty nice, but things soon turned pretty nasty.

However, Gibson’s conciliatory tone hardened dramatically after Precinct 4 Commissioner Ray Meadows moved to reject Gibson’s request.

He challenged Meadows, Precinct 1 Commissioner Wendall Crunk and County Judge Jim Lewis to explain their no votes into the recorded minutes of the court. Crunk and Lewis remained silent. Precinct 3 Commissioner Joe Mashek, who said last week that he might support displaying the resolution, was out of town Tuesday.

Meadows told Gibson that he was unaware of the noose in the mural until four years ago, when commissioners hired an artist to restore the fading 40-year-old work of artist Ruth Smith.

Meadows said he prefers that displays in the rotunda “remain consistent.” He predicted that diverse groups who studied the murals now likely could find a number of things “offensive” about them.

Yes, like, oh say, a mural depicting a priest molesting a small boy. If if was there already, then we would want to keep the mural “consistent.”

I officially move to have Commissioner Ray Meadows named ass spelunker of the year. Can I do that? Of course I can. What an idiot.

I’m not saying we have to remove sections of the mural that we find offensive. Far from it. This whole issue is about confronting some horrible things in our community’s past and starting the healing. Not removing things we find offensive so that we can pretend they didn’t happen.

One really good way to start that healing is to place a copy of a unanimously approved document that says that lynchings were bad and we don’t like them next to that part of the mural. Why Meadows and others on the court want to stop something like that, I have no idea. When you put so much effort into blocking anything to start that healing, it kind of leaves the impression with some of us that you are okay with what happened.