Of Mockingbirds and Cowbirds

Thought for the day:  Before I can live with other folks, I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience. [Harper Lee]

Receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, 2005 [wikipedia]

Nelle Harper Lee had strong opinions about right, wrong, and the role of conscience, but she never sought fame or fortune. In 1964, she said,

I never expected any sort of success with "Mockingbird." I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways, this was just about as frightening as the quick merciful death I'd expected. 

Last week, Ms. Lee passed away peacefully in her sleep, so she finally got that merciful death she was talking about, but whether she wanted it or not, she also got plenty of attention over the years because of her book, too. She never wanted to be in the limelight, but ever since To Kill a Mockingbird was published to great critical acclaim in 1960, she's been one of the most celebrated and beloved writers of our time. She rarely gave interviews or made public appearances, but she did accept numerous awards and honorary degrees over the years, beginning with the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1961... but she adamantly refused to make a speech while accepting them. As she put it, Well, it's better to be silent than to be a fool. 

But she most definitely was not a fool. In 1964, when a school board in Virginia wanted to ban her book on the grounds of it being immoral literature, she wrote them the following letter:


Recently I have received echoes down this way of the Hanover County School Board's activities, and what I've heard makes me wonder if any of its members can read.

Surely it is plain to the simplest intelligence that To Kill a Mockingbird spells out in words of seldom more than two syllables a code of honor and conduct, Christian in its ethic, that is the heritage of all Southerners. To hear that the novel is 'immoral' has made me count the years between now and 1984, for I have yet to come across a better example of doublethink.

I feel, however, that the problem is one of illiteracy, not Marxism. Therefore I enclose a small contribution to the Beadle Bumble Fund that I hope will be used to enroll the Hanover County School Board in any first grade of its choice.

(Isn't that letter GREAT???

In a 2011 interview, longtime family friend Reverend Thomas Butts revealed what Lee, or Nelle, as her friends knew her, had told him regarding why she had never written another book: 

Two reasons: one, I wouldn't go through the pressure and publicity I went through with "To Kill a Mockingbird" for any amount of money. Second, I have said what I wanted to say, and I will not say it again. 

So isn't it kind of surprising that she agreed to last year's publication of the re-discovered manuscript of her Go Set a Watchman? In essence, it isn't a sequel to Mockingbird, but rather, an early, unpolished draft of Mockingbird itself. I haven't read it, and don't know if I ever will, because I don't think I want to see Atticus Finch portrayed as a racist. How about you? Any of you read it? If you have, I'd love to know what you think.

May Nelle Harper Lee rest in peace, happily out of the limelight, and may her Mockingbird continue to inspire readers for many generations to come. Here are some of her more memorable quotes:

• You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.
• Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through, no matter what.
• Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.
• I think there's one kind of folks. Folks.
• Sometimes, the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than the whiskey bottle in the hand of another... There are just some kind of men who're so busy worrying about the next world, they've never learned to live in this one.
• People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.
• People in their right minds never take pride in their talents.
• You just hold your head high, and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don't you let 'em get your goat. Try fightin' with your head for a change. 

*******************

Do you remember the significance of the mockingbird in Ms. Lee's book? It is described as a songbird that does nothing but bring pleasure to people, and Atticus told Scout it's a sin to kill one of them. Within the context of the book, the mockingbird has most commonly been recognized as a symbol for innocence. 

photo by Galawebdesing [wikipedia]

Which brings me to the other part of this post. The cowbird part. Not saying those birds are inherently guilty, but they do lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, relieving them of the responsibilities of nest-building and raising their young. (I realize some mockingbirds do the same, but for the sake of argument, let's ignore that inconvenient little fact for now, shall we?) 

Now then, let's talk about cowbird-like people. You know, the ones who can't be bothered to raise their children in a responsible manner. John Rosemond, who writes a syndicated column on parenting, recently wrote an excellent article about the rights of children. According to him, one of those rights is to not be protected from the consequences of their actions. You've gotta know who I'm thinking about here. Ethan Couch, the privileged teenager who killed four people while driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and faced scant consequences, because of his Affluenza defense, which essentially claimed his (cowbird) parents had coddled him into a sense of irresponsibility. I've already written two posts about this case and his flight to Mexico after breaking his probation, so I won't belabor it now, but I wanted to give you a quick update. Shortly after I wrote the last post about him, he stopped fighting extradition, and was returned to the States. Last Friday, he appeared before a Texas judge, who ruled that the case WILL be handled in adult court this time. That means he will most likely be sentenced to four months or so behind bars before resuming his ten years of probation, and if he breaks probation again, he could get up to ten years in jail for each of the people he killed. For now, he is being held in maximum security, and in solitary confinement for 23 hours out of 24. Think he's taking it seriously now? With any luck, maybe, just maybe, he will develop the kind of conscience Harper Lee so famously wrote about. For his sake, I sincerely hope so.

                                                        Okay, bye... gotta fly!

                                Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.