Where I Stand 1965 — Classic Hank Greenspun: Gov. Wallace doesn’t want to face reality

Friday, July 13, 2001 | 4:16 a.m.

Note to readers: Sun Publisher Hank Greenspun, who died in 1989, was a prophetic, hard-hitting columnist who butted heads with world giants and demagogues and zealously defended the rights of the little guy. Every Sunday, starting today, the Sun will run one of Hank's Where I Stand columns, beginning with this March 1965 column, which recalls a time when the right to vote for minorities was won at the cost of "a billy club over the head." We are calling this feature "Classic Hank."

The prosecuting witness in a rape case, asked if she were a virtuous woman, replied that she was but that she was no fanatic on the subject.

A person does not have to be a fanatic, or even virtuous, on the subject of civil rights to agree that what is taking place in Alabama is dead wrong. It is wanton rape of a large segment of the population. It is plunder on the part of supposed law enforcement officials.

The equities are all on the side of the weak while the authority is on the side of the strong -- and somehow, it doesn't seem to fit the image of America.

Millions of Americans have watched the story on television as club-swinging state troopers moved relentlessly against peaceful men and women. As they pressed the attack the marchers fell like dominoes.

The screams of women as they were trampled underfoot and the rending, choking cough of others overcome by tear gas were impressed deep on the consciousness of every decent, peaceful citizen of the land.

It just doesn't seem right that the unarmed and passive, who are in the right, should be subjected to tear gas, clubs and guns in the hands of the bullies, the spoilers and those who stand for what is wrong with our society.

The good ask for the right to vote and they receive a billy club over the head. The oppressed seek to live like human beings and they receive death like wild animals at the hands of the brutes.

The slow, patient, peaceful men and women seeking rights guaranteed them under the Constitution ask for councils of peace and understand and they're met by ignorant goons in uniforms of legal color directed by a psychopathic governor cloaked with the mantle of state's rights authority.

Somehow Gov. Wallace of Alabama doesn't give the impression that he wants to come to grips with the problems of grave urgency that affect his state and the nation.

He doesn't strike me as being either sincere or serious but appears to enjoy the strutting peacock posture that bloody encounters afford his ego.

He is center stage -- usurping the limelight, and if he cannot be president of the United States, then he can make the president dance to his tune.

Yesterday he went to meet with the president at a time convenient to him and not the president, but at a place designated by the president -- the White House -- and this is the place where Wallace fancies himself the true occupant.

The place was acceptable and the time was of his choosing, which showed some agreement. But, was there agreement on any other phases of the problem of great urgency to the state and nation that Wallace described?

He was sincere about meeting with the president and he was seriously interested in being at the White House, but in everything else he must revert to the egomaniacal buffoon which he is.

He sought a meeting with the president to discuss a problem of great urgency facing his state and nation and which he created.

If there were no Gov. Wallaces, there would be no problem.

What a spot for an egocentric notoriety seeker! What a posture for a political snake-oil salesman! It was an opportunity made to order for an opportunist and Wallace exploited it all the way.

Whenever people of different races, different religion, different color, different political party or even different sports team affiliation meet, there is ready tinder waiting for the slightest spark to ignite it.

When one group is armed with religious zeal for justice and the other armed with murderous weapons coupled with a cloak of legal authority and consumed with a burning hatred, it becomes an atmosphere charged with throat-choking emotion.

One group seeking simple rights and the other lusting for broken heads can create an arena fraught with awesome possibilities.

When hate orders descend from the state's highest authority to bullies below cloaked with color of legal authority, there can be no councils of peace and understanding. It's war -- a one sided, unfair, cowardly, bullying battle against a hopelessly out-numbered underdog.

The men in uniforms and badges are not the rugged Americans of pioneer days who fought for law and order. These segregation-day sheriff's deputies and state police are anxious to create a police state. These are enormous bullies who offer their bulging muscles, some for pay and some for lust, for the right to engage in the suppression of all freedom.

The law enforcement officials of Alabama and the executive branch of the state government are not keepers of the law. They are tyrants of the law and they have brutalized an entire state.

The president of the United States demeans the White House by permitting the ugly likes of a Wallace within its historic, hallowed halls.