Lacking a calm, rational, civil and willing spokesperson to counter this wave of fear mongering, grandstanding, witch hunting, unapologetic accusations and ugly rage, I looked to some old friends for inspiration and perspective.

What would Scout say? I’m speaking, of course, of Jean Louise Finch, known to you and me as Scout, the smart watchful daughter of Atticus Finch, the lawyer-hero in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Scout looked into the hateful faces of a lynch mob, recognized a father of a schoolmate and said, “Hey, Mr. Cunnigham. I’m Jean Louise Finch. I go to school with Walter; he’s your boy, ain’t he?”

Cunningham, a hard luck farmer, would have lost his land save for Atticus’ help, but that night he joined a lathered-up pack intent on storming the jail and lynching a black prisoner who’d not yet gone to trial. They’d have their way with justice and hang the guy, even if it meant trampling Scout’s father who was sitting outside the jail on watch.

They were as terrifying as any group revved up into a mad rage. Then this curious little kid walks up to the wild-eyed bunch and sees someone she knows, another father. She didn’t think to be afraid of him, just goes on about his son being a really nice boy and would he please tell him “hey” for her.

That sure did halt the blood lust. Mr. Cunningham calmed right down. It was like he remembered who he was – the good part, not the violent, hysterical creature needing to kill someone. Then the whole angry pack turned around and went home. It was over. Later Atticus says in the book:

“So it took an eight year old child to bring ‘em to their senses…That proves something – that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they’re still human.”

I’ve never liked the idea of kids being used for political show. Even when it’s a favorite cause of my own, I don’t like seeing young children wearing T-shirts or carrying political signs, especially when they echo a belief or prejudice they can’t begin to understand.

But sometimes the grown-ups get a little out of hand and you might have to agree with Atticus when he says, “Hmp, maybe we need a police force of children.”

There’s been a lot of attention on “To Kill a Mockingbird” this year as the American classic marks its 50th anniversary. Published in 1960, the book looked at racism in a small Southern town in the 1930s. It was another time, things were different.

At least that’s what we say when we’re trying to figure out uglier parts of our history. This was during the Depression in the segregated South. Hate and blame came easy to people who felt they had little power in their own bleak lives.

Different, though? Decades later and we’ve got new wannabe mob-makers seeing how many others they can juice up.

Scary people vowing to reclaim the civil rights movement while calling the president a racist, saying he has a deep-seated hatred for white people. Going on about taking our country back – as long as it doesn’t include Muslims, immigrants, gay couples, certain babies born in the U.S. and anyone who looks like they might have crawled over a fence.

Playing loose with the Constitutional right to practice freedom of religion. Yet, don’t dare mess with their Constitutional right to walk around with a gun.

This is when I wish there was someone brave enough to wade in and say “what the Sam Hill are you doing?” Who’s going to be our Scout?

Tags: Atticus, Constitution, Juicy_Tomatoes, Scout, Susan_Swartz, To_Kill_A_Mockingbird

This entry was posted on Friday, September 3rd, 2010 at 12:51 pm and is filed under Books and Movies, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.