Local opinion: Wise women teach us to mock a killing bird

Listen to three women in three genres whose voices teach us about enemies lists and autocratic attempts to silence critics and rule by intimidation and repression.

Mary McGrory, iconic Pulitzer Prize winning columnist of the Nixon era, taught us how to push back against a powerful, vindictive, insecure president Nixon who, like Trump today, was obsessed with punishing his enemies. McGrory energized Nixon’s critics and educated much of the rest of the country by her “mocking” of his “enemies list” with her mockingbird song. Mockingbirds mock because it is in their nature to do so. Fearless critics of autocracy and oligarchy mock criminal and unconstitutional abuse of power because as lovers of democracy and freedom, it is in their nature to do so.

Maya Angelou taught us that you can’t silence the voices (“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”), the birds who would sing, even if you put them into cages— even if they are oppressed and have no power. Powerless or not, oppressed people always have agency through their voices if they can manage to be heard. Autocrats can put them into cages, but their songs go with them. What if the caged birds are mockingbirds? When intimidation doesn’t silence the songs, what must an autocrat do? “To Kill a Mockingbird” perhaps?

Is there a more well-known twentieth century novel than “To Kill a Mockingbird”? Harper Lee’s novel about criminal justice abuse based on race also speaks to us about oppression of the powerless whose voices are suppressed. Forty million people in forty languages have read the novel, and millions more have seen the movie with Gregory Peck (as Atticus Finch) playing the role of a Southern white lawyer, who lost the legal case but won the moral argument by giving voice to the voiceless suppressed by the tyranny of Southern white racism.

Donald Trump is trying to dismantle the federal government, destroy institutions, silence critics, suppress legitimate criminal prosecutions, and institutionalize his autocratic takeover of all of the levers of power and culture. In short, he’s trying to “kill” the Constitution, the rule of law, the diversity of our cultural identity, morality, decency, and democracy itself. But dissent and criticism will be remarkably hard to kill if we listen to the women. How to “mock a killing bird” is what the voices of three women teach us.

Sarcasm, farce, irony, metaphor, and above all “mocking”. These are the tools of great literature and great writers who give voice to all who would fight against the tyranny of autocracy, bigotry, and repression. Listen to the voices of three women who were never governed by fear of the rich and powerful, and who confer resolve and dignity on those who would be critics but have not yet found their voices.

Put the intrepid critics in a cage, yet they will sing in protest. Deny equality to entire classes of human beings, yet their humanity, dignity, and voices will remain — if we would but listen. But above all, “mock” the autocrat and his billionaire oligarch supplicants. Mary McGory shows us how to mock autocrats with their “enemies lists.”

A year after Richard Nixon’s “Watergate” unconstitutional and criminal behavior was sufficiently exposed to force his resignation in disgrace, Mary McGrory’s mocking and taunting voice stood out above all the rest.

For Mary McGrory’s role in exposing Nixon’s crimes, she was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1975. She became best known for “mocking” Nixon and his “enemies list.” She made the top 20 of Nixon’s enemies list, wore it with public pride, included it in her resume, and I’m sure she would have been pleased that it became part of her obituary. From public sources, a colleague of hers, Philip Gailey, was quoted as saying “She won a Pulitzer Prize, but her proudest achievement was making Richard Nixon’s ‘enemies list’.”

So, I would say to all leaders of all stripes, in all sectors, who fear Trump’s killing of democracy, demand to be put on his “enemies list.” Former presidents; current elected and previously appointed public officials (federal, state, and local); judges; generals and admirals; university and college presidents; media leaders at all levels; heads of professional organizations; corporate officials with backbones; editors and journalists everywhere; writers everywhere; celebrities; foreign dignitaries and defenders of democracy; scientists and experts in all fields; former winners of Nobel prizes (especially the Nobel Peace Prize), and ordinary people everywhere — all should struggle to “make the list”.

Mock this man, “mock a killing bird” who would kill our democracy.