March 3, 1999
EDITORIAL :
Beautiful page from an ugly chapter
___A courageous, dignified family has written a beautiful page in one of the ugliest chapters of Texas history.
___The family of murder victim James Byrd Jr. demonstrated grace and compassion as the trial of John William King moved to its sad yet resolute conclusion last week.
___The previous day, a jury of 11 whites and one black convicted King, a white supremacist, of the vicious murder of Byrd, a 49-year-old disabled black man. Prosecutors say King and two accomplices kidnapped and beat Byrd, then stripped him and dragged him behind a pickup for three miles before he was decapitated by a concrete culvert.
___During the penalty phase of the trial, Ronald King took the stand to plead for the life of his son. The elder King is 67; he entered the room in a wheelchair with a bottle supplying oxygen to his emphysema-emaciated lungs.
___He called John William his "best-loved boy" in a tearful testimony. "I love him," he said, simply. "You don't have to love what they do. ... You hate to think you're going to lose them. I guess as a daddy, I'll never be able to resign myself to that."
___Moments later, he sat weeping in the hallway when Byrd's daughter, Renee Mullins, embraced him.
___"God bless you," the Dallas Morning News reported her saying.
___"Oh, God. Thank you," King replied.
___Mullins also hugged King's daughter, Carol Spadaccini, for several minutes.
___Then Clara Taylor, Byrd's sister, hugged King, who shook with tears. Next Betty Boatner, another sister of Byrd, hugged King.
___"He's in God's hands," Boatner told King regarding his son. "You put it in God's hands. God loves everybody."
___Shared grief spanned race, anger and circumstance as the Byrd family literally and emotionally embraced Ronald King. Both families lost a loved one on that East Texas road, and they felt each other's pain in ways the rest of us only can imagine.
___In fact, Ronald King himself initiated the reciprocated compassion. The night before, just hours after the jury convicted his son, King picked up a phone and called James Byrd, 74-year-old father of the slain man.
___"He told me he was sick. He said he was sorry," Byrd said to the Dallas Morning News. "I told him I had no problems with him and his family. It meant something to me."
___"I think we do agree on one thing important: If we can just all learn to live together a little bit, to be a little bit more tolerant than we are--we've got to learn something like that," King told the newspaper. "If we don't, it will all be for nothing. We just can't have all this go for nothing."
___Two lives--and possibly four--is a ghastly price to pay for such a vital lesson.
___At least the little town of Jasper has learned that lesson. Beyond the unbearable pain of the murder, Jasper suffered the onslaught of both white- and black-supremacist groups, intense media scrutiny and the burden of living with ignominy.
___Yet Jasper has responded with resilience, maturity and grace. Led by religious leaders of both races, the community has banded together in pained harmony. It has told the world that hate-blinded murderers do not represent its values and standards. It has proclaimed John William King is not the face of Jasper, East Texas or this state. Jasper has demonstrated that love can conquer evil.
___We can learn a great deal from the Byrd family, Ronald King and the citizens of Jasper. Much, much less than rampant racism and atrocious hate crime divides many of our churches and even our state convention. Compassion and empathy have compelled these people to see a grievous situation from the other's perspective. Forgiveness has lashed them together.
___What if Baptist Christians practiced compassionate empathy and forgiveness, powered by the Spirit of Christ?
___ --Marv Knox
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