Hang a noose if you must, but don’t you dare sing!!

(Everybody sing! 6pm ET – promoted by buhdydharma )

John Mellencamp wrote a song about racism, which he titled “Jena”.  From the linked website:

“I am not a journalist, I am a songwriter and in the spirit and tradition of the minstrel, I am telling a story in this song. [cut]

The song was not written as an indictment of the people of Jena but, rather, as a condemnation of racism, a problem which I’ve reflected in many songs, a problem that still plagues our country today.

Jena Mayor Murphy R. McMillin has publicly called the song and video ‘inflammatory’. 

He said he had previously stayed quiet, hoping that the town’s courtesy to people who have visited over the past year would speak for itself. “However, the Mellencamp video is so inflammatory, so defamatory, that a line has been crossed and enough is enough.”

Hanging nooses from a tree, according to Mayor McMillin in the article, is “insulting and hurtful”.  But a SONG….that crosses a line, man…enough is enough!!!

You may remember him as the mayor who appreciates the support of white supremacists for their organization of rallies in support of white people, to counter largely African-American rallies in support of The Jena 6. 

McMillin has insisted that his town is being unfairly portrayed as racist-an assertion the mayor repeated in an interview with Richard Barrett, the leader of the Nationalist Movement, a white supremacist group based in Learned, Miss., who asked McMillin to “set aside some place for those opposing the colored folks.”

“I am not endorsing any demonstrations, but I do appreciate what you are trying to do,” Barrett quoted McMillin as saying. “Your moral support means a lot.”

Is it me?

In a town where hanging nooses from a ‘white tree’ is considered a ‘prank’, a SONG is inflammatory?  In a town that actually has a ‘white tree’, a SONG is inflammatory?

According to the Yahoo! article, Mayor McMillin is opposed to the images invoking the civil rights movement of the ’60’s, stating that use of such “cheapens their sacrifice and insults their memory.” 

I wish I thought that he held their memory or their sacrifice in the kind of regard that would warrant its protection.