hearts and minds

 don't see why those CCCO guys thought they were ever going to get something out of the city government.  I think they thought something like people were basically decent and democratic and when it was pointed out to them that segregation existed and wasn't decent or democratic they would see the errors in their ways and would move to correct them. 

They should have gotten a clue when the city said, segregation, what segregation, I don't see no segregation going on.  The city guys were not negotiating in good faith and it's no surprise, if they started integrating the schools there would be hell to pay with their constituents, so their was nothing in it for them, and it wasn't like the CCCO had anything to intimidate them with.

Well in the south the local government didn't even have to worry about pesky liberals so they just hosed the blacks down when they marched, but that got the feds pissed off and they brought in troops and wily LBJ pushed through all those civil rights laws, and that took care of that.  More or less.  They got rid of Jim Crow, and those nasty polling judges had to stop giving them those absurd quizzes, but still the blacks were poor, because of all that slavery and years of Jim Crow, and there was a lot of subtle bigotry going on, so it wasn't like they had equal opportunity with white people.

Much like things were in the north.  So what are you gonna do?  The laws had been changed but the people haven't.  How do you change hearts and minds? 

I think the guys writing the book were from the faction that thought that you could change hearts and minds, that if you showed people the moral and logical path they would follow it.  Somewhere down the line this will lead to more forceful activities marches and violence, which these guys are not going to like because they think that violence never accomplishes anything, and I rather agree, all those riots, they never helped the area where people are rioting. 

But I'm getting ahead of the book, I keep looking forward to when Martin Luther comes to town.  I was down in Champaign then but I came up for like summers and Christmas and I remember it looked a little like people had their backs up.  It seems like all the businesses had these American flag decals in their windows and there on 63rd street just east of Kedzie was the headquarters of the American Nazi Party.


I know you don't follow politics like I do, like it is one of my favorite sports.  Donald Trump will never win the nomination, but he'll be standing up there in the debates, and everybody will be looking at him, and he will probably be insulting all the other candidates and their dilemma will be do they dare stand up and denounce him  and risk alienating that 20 percent of republicans who like the guy, which will help them with the moderates in the general election, if they get the nomination, but it will hurt them in the primary which they need to win to get the nomination.  The modern day republican presidential dilemma.

And if Trump holds on to around ten percent when he loses the nomination will he run as a third party?  Frankly I don't think he is willing to work that hard, but if he does, the republicans are doomed.  Probably.  Because you never know what is going to happen in politics.