The struggle to evolve

Your recent editorial arguing that Gov. Bill Clinton did little to advance the cause of civil rights was encouraging. It shows me that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is evolving in a positive direction.

I predict that within five years, maybe three, you will be blasting Gov. Mike Beebe for not having advanced civil rights for homosexuals. By then it will be clear to a majority of even Arkansas voters, and therefore the Republican governor and most legislators—and conservative inky wretches—that denying equal rights to people based on sexual orientation is an act of bigotry as well as unconstitutional.

The brilliance of Richard Nixon’s reported “benign neglect” posture on race, which still serves conservatives well on all civil-rights issues, is under-appreciated. It allows them to wink their way through touchy civil-rights debates without unduly offending their core constituency. But the rot in that core constituency, even in Arkansas, may soon render their intolerance intolerable. (Is it bigotry to not tolerate bigots?) Bigot is a nasty-sounding word. I use it clinically as a general term that applies to racists, anti-Semites, misogynists, homophobes and xenophobes.

You are not alone in your struggle. I believe most white Southern boomers, including me, are either bigots or recovering bigots at various stages of recovery. Most of us were raised by bigots in bigoted communities. Most of our parents were not evil, just unenlightened or unwilling to challenge community norms.

Congratulations on your progress as a fellow recovering bigot. HOWELL MEDDERS

Fayetteville