Three Approaches To Reality

Fantasy:

For 40 years Philadelphia and Neshoba County have been synonymous with redneck vigilante justice, and we’ve been saddled with the “Mississippi Burning” stereotypes. The role of law enforcement in the murder conspiracy seems to amplify the disdain outside observers feel, a certain breakdown in civility and law and order.

Most decent people here have felt the shame of a crime unpunished and applaud justice.

Before us is an historic opportunity to once and for all set the record straight, to do the right thing by bringing the murder or murders to justice.

("The Trial of the century" (Editorial) The Neshoba Democrat, April 6, 2005)

Experience:

A British journalist was reportedly assaulted last week while talking to a county resident about the upcoming trial of accused murder Edgar Ray Killen, the authorities said. . . .

Officials said Andrew Buncombe, a Washington correspondent for The Independent, stopped at a house on County Road 515 to speak with a resident about the Killen trial when an elderly white male assaulted him with what appeared to be a metal pipe.

Road 515 is the road on which the civil rights workers were murdered and where Killen lives. . . .

Buncombe said he walked into the yard Wednesday at about 2 p.m., and began a conversation about roses that were growing in the yard. When the reporter brought up the murders the man reached for the pipe from the back of a pick-up truck, Buncombe said.

Buncombe suffered a severe blow to his right hand and was hit on the back of one of his legs.

(Kenneth Billings, "Reporter beaten on rural road," The Neshoba Democrat, June 1, 2005)

Analysis:

The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid,
And the marshals and cops get the same,
But the poor white man's used in the hands of them all like a tool.
He's taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
'Bout the shape that he's in
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.

(Bob Dylan, "Only A Pawn In Their Game")