Charlie Wilson and I have a few things in common. No, maybe we have three things in common. We're both from smalltown USA, Trinity, Texas, and graduates of Trinity High School. Yes, we both are even listed as "Tiger Heroes." See this page if you're unconvinced. Yes, a bit ostentatious, but it'll make the point. The book about him was a heavy read, so it was simply a case of wait until the movie comes out to see what he did. Even as a kid growing up in East Texas, he was a larger than life character, but not one whose paths ever crossed with mine.
In the movie, Tom Hanks portrays him in "Charlie Wilson's War" as a complex and passionate man who is moved by what he sees when he goes to Afghanistan and visits with children whose arms have been blown off by the atrocities of the Russian army in their attempt to overtake the land and its people. That was a moving scene in the movie as the two children with the translator talk to Wilson. From that point on, Wilson was committed as long as he had breath in his body and a member of Congress, that he would fight for these people.
In a similar way, I still recall the interviews with farmers in Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia in the mid-90s. As I've said on several occasions, "I was not prepared for what I saw, felt, and heard." On the other hand, when those experiences come up with people of color, their response is typically, "Of course! What did you expect?!" How naive I was, how out of touch I was, with what had been happening on the farms and in the communities where African American farmers came face to face with the racist implications of policies for farming loans, etc. that should have been made for a playing field in which all farmers, every color dark or light, could negotiate.
So, in those days, the images of strokes, kidney failure, loss of life and farm land and farming and family, blindness, and on and on and on, moved me deeply, and they still do today.
The story has not been completely written, that of what will happen to the black farmers of our land. Like the line in the Wilson movie relative to Afghanistan, "the ball keeps bouncing and bouncing," and where will it stop bouncing for farmers. Will the 2008 farm bill and its economics and policies which address the issues for socially disadvantaged farmers work? Will the opportunity for those farmers shoved aside under Pigford actually make a difference, efforts for those 70,000 black farmers left in the dust of red tape as "late filers?"
Anyway, I admire Charlie Wilson's passion for righting wrongs. He saw children with arms blown off. I saw farmers who'd lost much of their health, livelihood, and trust in the system.
I'm just wondering. Did Charlie Wilson ever meet any Black farmers in his district? Maybe
our paths will cross some day and we can talk about that.
