Reflecting on our past personal events, it’s easy to see the pattern of our subconscious mind working in true form when we survey the sequence of events leading to our current life situation. Also known as hindsight, this is very useful for self-reflection, as well as self-correction.

Many people in the OSU community labeled me a racist last year for my article condemning the “cruise” associated with the annual Heritage Festival. These grossly uninformed critics don’t know me personally, thus their wild accusations and blind judgments fall on deaf ears.

I still stand by the opinions of that article to this day, simply because I rest in the simple comfort of knowing the history of my personal conduct and relationships doesn’t reflect racist propaganda.

I highly doubt Trent Lott could say the same. His Dec. 5 comments endorsing retired Sen. Strom Thurmond’s decades-old segregationist political beliefs weren’t only racist, offensive and stupid, but the culmination of a long history of insensitive policies and an “oops” of biblical proportions.

Lott’s pre-1964 segregationist South persona has stood the test of time and domestic change. As chapter president of Sigma Nu fraternity at the University of Mississippi during the early 1960s, Lott helped lead a national campaign to prevent blacks from being admitted to any of Sigma Nu’s chapters.

Throughout his tenure in Congress, he voted against nearly every contentious item on the civil rights agenda, despite the support of others in his party. While speaking at a Sons of Confederate Veterans function in 1984, he professed that the “spirit of Jefferson Davis lives in the 1984 Republican Platform.” Yikes.

Southern Partisan magazine caught Lott’s 1984 case against the “costs” of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, stating that the observance of the holiday should have been reserved for someone “more deserving.” Prior to his Dec. 5 comments, Lott has been a rock of support for Thurmond’s segregationist past, despite the reality that Sen. Thurmond himself has largely put this past to rest.

Republicans would like nothing more than Lott’s absence. They want him shunned far, far away from any conservative ideals or their political agenda. Once he’s gone, they hope, the issue will simply fade away. President Bush took Lott to the woodshed for his comments, deeming them “offensive” and said they “don’t reflect the spirit of America.”

On the contrary, Democrat strategists don’t want Lott out of the picture. They ridicule his comments and political history, but in light of their midterm-election whipping, the entire Trent Lott affair is extra blood in the waters of the partisan power struggle.

Anyone who holds conservative ideals should be more apt to defend Americans of color simply because conservative values themselves, by nature, aren’t derogatory. They have shaped the nature of our current prosperity, paved the way for civil rights reform and are echoed throughout bipartisan Democrat and Independent political efforts.

Personal accountability, dedication to family, community and country, religious faith, hard work and respect for your common man are not just conservative ideals, but American ideals as well. Trent Lott’s opinions don’t reflect the collective attitude of our conservative leaders, and any case against Republicans claiming a history of racial bias would only be a desperate attempt at political gain, blindly ignoring the dual nature of our nation’s political and social oppression that spanned nearly two centuries throughout Democrat and Republican governments alike.

Our history and pattern of events largely dictates the path of our future. We are who we are because our upbringing shapes the way we apply our instilled values on a daily basis.

In Trent Lott’s case, I would say his future doesn’t look so bright, at least politically. He is who he is because he has embraced a dark element of history, while many others like him have separated themselves from it.

I think columnist Michael Kinsley of Time magazine put it best by writing, “When you’re a politician, the worst slip you can make is saying what you really think.”

Andy Topetzes is a senior in political science and criminology. Send all comments to [email protected].