Lesson learned from the George Wallace shooting

I remember the day in 1972 that George Wallace was shot. I was 10 at the time and was aware enough of politics to know that our family hated George Wallace. Living in sort of a small "country" town in south Florida - there was plenty of support for the Alabama Governor in his quest for the White House. But not in our household -my dad was from Connecticut and my mom from Germany - no southerners here. Wallace was pro-segregation and I think it's fair to say, anti black. He was a Democratic governor but later became an independent when the party declined to follow his lead. The people who left the Democratic party at the time to support Wallace still have not returned. They became Reagan Republicans and have been an essential factor in the dominance of so-called conservative movement over the past generation. The success of Reagan, Gingrich, and even George W. Bush can be traced directly to the presidential campaigns of George Wallace.

But I vividly recall watching TV that day when a Special Report interrupted the program to announce that George Wallace had just been shot! The first thing I did was cheer. Yayyyyyy!! - The bad man was shot!!! I'll never forget how surprised I was to see the sad look on my moms face. She told me that even though we strongly disagreed with Wallace's ideas, we should not cheer him being shot. I learned a big lesson that day which I really hadn't thought much about until I saw the news that his would be assassin, Arthur Bremer, was released from jail.

Wallace survived the shooting that day but was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He also later disavowed his racists views and became an advocate for minority rights. Sadly, his personal transformation was not matched by many of the "Reagan Republicans" he helped create. To this day politicians still race bait in an attempt to attract some Southern Voters. But the lesson I learned that day was incredibly important - you can hate ideas and dislike people who have them, but you should never take joy in the suffering of any human being.