The Hanging Chair

[Doc Holliday]

Austin is known throughout Texas as a bastion of liberalism. Having visited there many times (my daughter and her husband live there), it's easy to see why, in spite of being the capital city of one of the reddest states in the Union. The goobers in state government may work there, but the residents wear their "Keep Austin Weird" t-shirts proudly.

But apparently things get even weirder when you get out into the suburbs. The story of Bud Johnson in Spicewood, Texas was first reported on Monday by Katherine Haenschen in Austin’s Burnt Orange Report and has now been picked up by several news outlets. I "borrowed" the story from local Democratic blogger Carol Morgan, who posted it in the Lubbock (TX) Avalanche-Journal earlier this week (link & comments below).

Bud Johnson, a 73 year old Republican, who lives in the Northwest Austin suburb of Spicewood, "lynched" an empty chair from a tree in his front yard. If you hadn’t witnessed Clint Eastwood’s soliloquy with President Obama as an empty chair at the RNC, you might not even flinch at this imagery which is now inexorably linked with our President.

Mr. Johnson’s actions are a clear and simple declaration: he’s calling for the lynching of our President.

The empty chair hanging from a tree opens up a Pandora’s Box of memories. Texas lynched more black victims between 1885 and 1942 than 47 other states in America. Only two states, Georgia and Mississippi, surpassed us. Even as recently as 1998, James Byrd, Jr. was tortured and killed, dragged behind a truck on a dirt road behind the “Pine Curtain” in rural East Texas. This is the dark side of Texas history that we would prefer to forget, but now Mr. Johnson has symbolically resurrected the idea of that heinous practice.

When called out about this, Mr. Johnson was not even the least apologetic. When contacted by Ms. Haenschen of BOR, he defiantly replied, "I don't really give a damn whether it disturbs you or not. You can take [your concerns] and go straight to hell and take Obama with you. I don't give a shit. If you don't like it, don't come down my street."

Perhaps Mr. Johnson doesn’t remember the story of Jesse Washington.

In 1916 Waco, Jesse Washington, a 17-year-old mentally handicapped black man was sentenced to death for the murder of a Waco woman. The citizens of Waco were not willing to wait for his execution; a wild-eyed crazed mob ripped him from the jail and took him to a waiting crowd of 15,000 whose rage and racist anger would not be satisfied by a mere lynching. Children were even let out of school to watch this horrific event. Mayor John Dollins could have prevented it, but didn’t. He believed the deadly sideshow would help him in his upcoming election.

The crowd castrated the 17-year-old and cut off his fingers (while he was still alive) so that he could not escape the bonfire raging below him by climbing the white-hot chain. His quivering and still-breathing body was raised and lowered over the bonfire for two hours to the delight of the raucous laughing and smiling mob. Then, his charred body, like the trophy killing of an animal, was dragged by an automobile through the city. After his death, pieces of his body were sold as souvenirs to the people in Waco. A professional photographer recorded the violence and profited later by selling postcards that the citizens of Waco could mail to their kin in other states.

This was an incident that the city of Waco would no doubt like to forget.

However, wicked and unconscionable this evil act is, it is one we should NOT forget because there are some individuals in Texas who would choose to resurrect and repeat it.

Some will argue that Mr. Johnson’s actions are free speech, the same argument used for the “Innocence of Muslims” that caused the death of Americans in Libya. His actions were, indeed, free speech and expression and he exercised his right on his private property, but it still defies common sense.

I’m glad I live in a country where free speech and free expression exists, but with that great privilege comes a great responsibility. For freedom of speech and expression to continue to exist unfettered and without censorship, we must exercise that freedom with great care.

Just because we have the freedom to say or do something doesn’t necessarily mean that we should.

Perhaps Mr. Johnson is in need of a history lesson.

http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/carol-morgan/2012-09-20/does-bud-johnson-remember-story-jesse-washington#.UF25o1FXVSQ

[jsr]

1. Evidently he's an anomaly in a sea of blue

within the city limits of Austin anyway.

[valerief]

2. This is just too, too ridiculous! From hanging chad to hanging chair.

[NYC_SKP]

3. K/R and link to the Wikipedia entry.

A shocking horrid event.

Warning, graphic images at the Wikipedia link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Jesse_Washington

[riverwalker]

4. and if we Northerners think we are innocent

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920_Duluth_lynchings

The 1920 Duluth lynchings occurred on June 15, 1920, when three black circus workers were attacked and lynched by a mob in Duluth, Minnesota

[jsr]

5. Another famous incident in Minnesota:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Trice