Senate Sketches #1091 - Capital City Free Press

Volume 7, Issue 5, May 2008

Senate Sketches #1091

(Your response goes here.)

Write a letter to the editor: Holler@capcityfreepress.com Just include your full name, and city/county, state and/or country from which you are writing. (Your email address will NOT be posted with your letter.)

Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders
Special to the Free Press

“Senator, I can’t believe you have become a Republican!” “Senator, are you going to be McCain’s Vice President?” “Senator, we saw you on national TV with McCain.” Each of these comments, and many similar ones, was accompanied by hearty laughter.

I have never been teased so much in my life. In fact, I have been teased more in the last week about my appearance with presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) in Selma than in the previous 25 years put together. The laughter has come from all over the country. Because I’m laughing, they laugh with me, not at me.

I understand the laughter. The contrasts are just too great: He is white and I am black; he’s strongly Republican and I’m strongly Democratic; he’s not going to change from who he is and I am not going to change from who I am.

He is running for president. I am a Barack Obama delegate. Yet, I am standing behind him on a platform on national television.

It started with a phone call from Margaret Bentley, co-chair of the Black Belt Action Commission (BBAC, also known as the Action Commission). She informed me that Senator McCain would be in Selma and wanted to meet with leaders of the Action Commission. I strongly believe in the Commission so I was very willing to meet. Besides, it is good to have a potential president interested in an initiative one is helping to lead.

Margaret and I met Senator McCain in 2006 at the Black Belt Action Commission Second Annual Celebration in Demopolis. He had come with Governor Bob Riley and was very interested in the concept. He remained impressed and even named this trip the “McCain Action Tour.” The bus was “The Action Express.”

I arrived at the St. James Hotel and talked with Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day, Wilcox Circuit Clerk Ralph Ervin, John Clyde Riggs of the Alabama Tombigbee Regional Commission, and others. At Senator McCain’s invitation, the mayor of Selma and I went to his hotel room. Mayor Perkins strongly advanced his agenda, using virtually all the time. I did not get a chance to discuss the Black Belt Action Commission before an aide notified Senator McCain that it was time for his speaking engagement.

We came downstairs and gathered for a couple of minutes to go out to the platform with Senator McCain. As we started walking, he looked around and asked, “Where is the mayor?” Someone said, “He went out the side door.” We walked on.

When I got to the platform where Senator McCain was to speak, a security person directed me away from the platform. I did not mind at all. Then Senator McCain came over and motioned for me to join him and Governor Bob Riley at the podium. I hesitated.

I hesitated because I have two bad knees and standing any length of time increases the pain geometrically. I knew it would be a very painful moment for me. I also hesitated because I knew that my standing with Senator McCain would be interpreted by some as supporting him for president. Still, I went and stood behind him as he spoke.

The platform was situated so that the world famous Edmund Pettus Bridge was the backdrop for the podium. Senator McCain took that painful history of brutal beatings and lifted it so we could see farther and reach higher. He said those who had struggled for the right to vote were “patriots.” I was proud of how he framed that special struggle, especially since he had been one of 22 Senate votes against the holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the leader of that struggle.

I knew that the McCain Presidential Campaign had their reasons for creating this moment. I also had my reasons for meeting and participating. I strongly believe that we must communicate across differences of race, gender, age, class, ideologies, political parties, etc. I believe that we can agree on 90 percent of issues when we truly communicate. However, we usually allow the 10 percent we cannot agree upon to stop us from talking about the 90 percent on which we can agree.

Not all reactions were in the form of teasing. Some were very serious in charging that I was “being used.” Some were very serious in saying that I should have followed Mayor Perkins’ exit strategy. Others were very serious in thanking me for going and standing with one who may become president of the United States. Some said it was the “right thing to do.” A number said, “When a special guest comes to your area, you don’t shun him.”

I do hope Senator McCain uses the Black Belt Action Commission as a national model whether or not he becomes president. I hope to continue communicating with him as all of us “patriots” keep working to make America an even better country.

I am glad Senator McCain came. I am glad I came. I am glad I stood.

EPILOGUE – My mother used to say, “Son, don’t go with someone in the dark that you are afraid to be seen with in the light.” I believe that communication is so important. We need to be willing to meet, to be seen and to stand in order to effectively communicate.