Screams of My Father (Alternative Title: David Flynn is a Jerk)

I promise this is my last post about the US Attorney purge (seriously, go to www.talkingpointsmemo.com, they found this story and have by far the best coverage). But all of this brings me back to somewhere between 1982 and 1987 (a little hazy on the exact time).

Back then my dad was still alive and working at the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, the main area for federal enforcement of various civil rights laws that had developed. He had worked in a bunch of the sections there but had ended up as Deputy in the Appellate Section. The job wasn't especially glamorous. Pay was fine but far below what the private sector paid, but he loved the work and more importantly thought it was important (Mom: If you are worrying that your kids are generally fine taking relatively low paying jobs doing work they find important, you have only yourself and Dad to blame).

Back in 1980, however Reagan got elected and slowly but surely the priorities of the Civil Rights Division changed. The Department started cutting down on enforcing voting rights, stopped pushing cases against segregated school districts and totally reversed their stance on affirmative action. In addition to orders from on high, they also appointed new section chiefs who were, how shall we put it, less concerned about making sure people weren't discriminated against.

Or as my friend Mike put it once, they were very very very concerned about the rights of white people to get into college and that was about the extent of their concern.

Anyway, now that we now the Attorney General lied and that the Civil Rights Division was getting stocked with right wing cronies whose main concern was making it harder for poor black people to vote, I am happy my Dad doesn't have to see it. It might have made him angry enough to buy one of those guns that Bush's Court of Appeal says DC residents can buy now.