Shots Fired Into Home of First Black Mayor of Greenwood, Louisiana

I just had to pinch myself.

Did I wake up this morning in a foggy dream, or rather a nightmare, set back in the 1960's?

Frankly I kept waiting for Alec Baldwin and Whoopi Goldberg to show up at my front door as Bobby Delaughter and Myrlie Evers dragging James Woods the murdering Byron De La Beckwith by the ear to face justice .

But I hadn't been mysteriously transported back to the days of "Ghosts of Mississippi". I wouldn't be seeing Whoopi. Alec or James.

Rest assured however, that as I contemplated with nausea the contents of my e-mail inbox, the spirit of the late Medgar Evers was surely aroused and probably already in prayer and planning with the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Sadly, I was awake, and it is 2007.

It is 2007, and it is true.

It was confirmed by e-mail from other anti-hate Not In Our Town http://pbs.org/niot leaders from across our country. In this place we call America, the land of the free, home of the brave, fighters of global terrorism and protectors of the downtrodden, evil and hate had reared their ugly heads in the state of Louisiana.

In this place we call America, at the home of Mayor Ernest Lampkins, the first black mayor elected in Greenwood, Louisiana in 2004, gunshots were fired into his family's home.

Clearly when someone shoots into one's home their intent isn't wholesome. It isn't a case of an innocent teenage prank gone awry. There's nothing innocent about it at all. And there darn sure isn't anything even remotely American about it.

Someone had a purpose.

Someone was sending the Mayor a message.

It was a message of hate.

Perhaps it is the same message that the family of Gerald Washington believe may have been sent 150 miles away from Greenwood in Westlake, Louisiana.

There, some believe the same message rang loud and clear when the family of Gerald Washington learned of his death December 30, 2006 in a parking lot. A gunshot wound to the chest.

Gerald Washington. Shot to death just a few days before he was to take office as Westlake's newly elected mayor. Gerald Washington was black.

The coroner and the sheriff pronounced Washington's death a suicide. A supposed self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest? His family and supporters have questioned the ruling and have asked for an FBI investigation.

In these days of might makes right, our elected officials chant a rallying cry to be Americans. As Americans we have taken up the torch of democracy and are spreading it throughout the world. As Americans we cry out to protect our borders and for all American citizens to be vigilant and on alert stamping out terrorism at our doorstep.

But amidst all these pro-American rallying cries, I can't help but wonder who of us are couregous enough, and dare I say, American enough, to publicly stand up and acknowledge, let alone fight, the domestic terrorism that exists in our very own backyards. The bullies in our own schoolyard here at home.

See, in some corners of this great country of ours, we still have our very own homegrown axis of evil. In some corners of our beloved homeland, not all citizens act like Americans. Instead, they hide in bushes, under the cover of darkness, and perpetrate their own special brand of domestic terrorism against our fellow Americans.

So while we sit here in our comfortable homes and offices, presumably safe in our own backyards, I first ask you to consider the hateful acts perpetrated against Mayor Ernest Lampkins and his family. I ask you to consider the kind of courage the Gerald Washington and Ernest Lampkins families have had to summon up.

As you view the size of the bullet holes in the windows of the Lampkins home I ask you to consider your place in this country as an American.

In closing, I ask you to remember the movie the "Untouchables". Consider the words of Sean Connery's Irish-American beat cop character James Malone as he asked Elliot Ness about going into battle against Al Capone. . . "What are YOU prepared to do?"

S.J. Seyfarth-Lechner
Co-Chair
National Advisory Council
Not In Our Town


Stay tuned as the national anti-hate grass roots movement called Not In Our Town takes a look at these events. Visit the website http://theworkinggroup.org/ to view video of the Not In Our Town Movement, learn about the filmmakers from The Working Group, and how you can become a part of a national anti-hate movement.