R.I. ..........I am not sure.

I have to be true to myself and write this post. I have been thinking about it ever since my man Robert Byrd went off to meet his maker. I wish I could say rest in peace, but while I do want him to rest, I don't necessarily want it to be peaceful. I want him to have nightmares every now and then. Particularly when he thinks about his night and days of marauding with the klan. And I want him to wake up in a cold sweat when he thinks about his 14 hour filibuster of the civil rights bill. Or, when he remembers dropping the N word over at Radio Rwanda. And then there is all that pork to his beloved West Virginia. Yes, the main stream media has been ignoring certain aspects of my man's life, but I wont.

This post from someone over on Facebook sums up my feelings on one level:

"If people want to be fair and balanced on all issues you need to call a spade a spade. No one who knows the history of what the KKK actually did to minority groups would actually try to tell a minority to just get over it. While I am willing to acknowledge that Byrd was re-elected in West Virginia many times very similiar [sp] to Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond in NC and SC (supposedly due to remorse or whatever you would like to call it) in today’s age where people are thrown out of office for having an affair or seen as unfit to be a candidate because of their sexual orientation, a man with provocative ties of this nature should have never been senator this long in any state. Period…then again maybe David Duke should try to make another comeback"

But then, on another level, I do appreciate his support of his O ness and his votes on certain civil rights issues. But then again.....

“I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side… Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds. ”

That was Rob, a year after he supposedly renounced his ties to the kkk, writing to a friend.

But, hey, times have changed. And, to be fair, he did say this:

"It has emerged throughout my life to haunt and embarrass me and has taught me in a very graphic way what one major mistake can do to one's life, career and reputation'

That was Rob talking about his membership in the klan.

"The death of my grandson caused me to stop and think," Byrd said. "I came to realize that black people love their children as much as I do mine."

Okaay, his grandson died in 1982. Took you awhile to come around there didn't it Mr. Byrd? (Better late than never I guess.)

Still, I hope that most of your rest is in peace. Most of it. Not all.