August 13, 2013
Senator Bill Nelson
3416 South University Drive
Davie, FL 32207

RE: A time to heal. Perhaps you can help us come together to go forward as one to the land of milk, honey, peaceful enjoyment, full employment, and the pleasant purring of a contented populace after the wealth is spread around.

Senator Nelson,

That we are in a time of discord, of racial rancor, of fundamental disharmony, there can be no doubt.

Herewith a plan to heal.

Perhaps you can bring us together. Perhaps you can help us reach the Kumbaya land I believe that men of good still want to dwell in. Unlike Moses we can reach the Promised Land.

Even a cursory reading of American History shows that the Democratic Party reigns supreme, indeed even unchallenged, as the template for racism, both institutional and personal. As a Democrat you can be the vanguard, the leader of changing that.

It was a Republican President who appointed a Republican Governor as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States that led to official desegregation of public schools in this country. The same Republican President sent the 101st Airborne Davison, the Screaming Eagles, the same group made memorable by “Band of Brothers”, to enforce the law. He did this after the Democratic Governor called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent integration.

Two Democratic Senators, John Stennis of Mississippi and Richard Russell of Georgia, were in the forefront of the fight to prevent integration. My reasons for not mentioning other Democratic Senators – Senators like Byrd, Gore, Talmadge Eastland, Ervin, Smathers, and Fullbright leap to mind – will be made clear.

Despite the changing mood of the country the names of Stennis and Russell were honored by other Senators in way that sticks in the craw of law abiding citizens of all races. If not being worse than Senator Bilbo is the only good thing that can be said about them then we give new meaning to the term “Damning with faint praise”.

The USS John Stennis [CVN 74] a nuclear powered aircraft carrier whose official nickname is “Johnny Reb”, and the Richard Russell Senate Office Building stand as constant reminders of a past that must be ventilated and made clean. [“Dixie” can no longer be played at Ole Miss football games. When was the last time a government agency flew the Stars and Bars? Even though Democratic President Woodrow Wilson was its biggest fan, the wait for Godot will be over before “The Birth of a Nation” is shown again in the White House. Amazon will sell you “Deep Throat” in 3-D and in 69 languages before “Song of the South” will be offered.]

Those names are like fungating chancres that must be aerated, etiolated, ripped asunder, and left to heal in God’s blessed forgiving sunlight.

Despite their outward Southern gentlemen courtliness one of them kept a lawn jockey by his DC office door. He encouraged visitors to rub its head for good luck. The other had Muzak looping “Old Black Joe” over and over in his waiting room. Both Senators sent copies of “Li’l Black Sambo”, with the good parts underlined, to constituents who would ask.

I suggest that you lead a crusade to have the name Richard Russell sandblasted off the wall of the Senate building named after him. As a Jersey guy I suggest that the new honorees be from my home state. Williams/Toricelli has a certain euphonic ring to it. New Jersey was in the forefront of bettering race relations what with the EyeTies helping the castagnas establish tax free distribution zones of personal products.

Both were significant, even memorable, Senators.

It is true that they may have had problems with other parts of Federal law but integration was not one of them. Besides, as former Senator Clinton said, “What difference does it make now.”

As to the name of the aircraft carrier….

I suggest that ship be renamed the USS Oprah Winfrey.

She is a calorically challenged Black woman.

You could kill 3 birds with one stone.

It would quiet the permanently outraged fat Black chick lobby.

Which would rather have?

A $38,000 hand bag as an accessory item or an eight billion – that’s $8,000,000,000 – carrier named after you. The Swiss don’t even have a navy.

So much of what we do is petty, banal. We go about our quotidian tasks almost afraid to look up and see the stars. You have a chance to make us a better country. Please take it. It’s time for modern American Liberalism to come to the Baby Jesus, confess their sins, plead for redemption and beg for forgiveness.

God bless you and God Bless America!







Kevin Smith


PS – Lest you think I have taken total leave of my senses perhaps you could clear up some questions about the Republican War on Women. Mayor Filner [D-CA] never saw an ass that he didn’t want to grab. Governor Spitzer [D-NY] would have been Mary Magdalene’s favorite customer. Congressman Weiner [D-NY has given, gives, and will give new meaning to the term erectile function. They are all Democrats. Could we not assume that if it is not a war on women it is, as President Truman said, a “police action”? Get back to me on that. I have 3 .granddaughters who visit regularly.