Where is Edith when we need her?

Marcia and I are watching ALL IN THE FAMILY reruns, and we’re laughing, once again, at Archie “Bunkerisms.”

Norman Lear’s attack on our problems, especially racism, was daring back in the 70s. But as we watch, we’re starting to wonder just how much, or little progress, has really been made in the U.S.

Take the time that Sammy Davis, Jr., made a guest appearance on the show.

Archie Bunker: “Now, no prejudice intended, but I always check with the Bible on these here things. I think that, I mean if God had meant for us to be together he'd a put us together. But look what he done. He put you over in Africa, and put the rest of us in all the white countries.

Sammy Davis Jr.: “Well, he must've told 'em where we were because somebody came and got us.”

A position some of our nation’s leaders might take today!

Little did I know, back in the 70s, that racism would become so close to my heart. 20 years later, I began a 9-year trek on the road to freedom for a black man who was wrongly convicted. Maurice Carter would later be considered my brother, and it’s no secret that racism played a role in keeping that man behind bars for half of his life.

That Maurice Carter experience then led me into a third career as a prisoner advocate.

Check out this statement from Michelle Alexander’s book THE NEW JIM CROW:

“Almost two million people are currently locked up in the immense network of U.S. prisons and jails. More than 70 percent of the imprisoned population are people of color. It is rarely acknowledged that the fastest growing group of prisoners are black women…”

In case you’ve forgotten, the bright, shining light in that TV sitcom was Edith Bunker, who took her black next door neighbor, Louise Jefferson, as her best friend, who readily made room for Lionel Jefferson to sleep on her couch during a feud with his father, and who constantly debunked Archie’s white nationalist comments.

The New York Times obituary for Jean Stapleton (Edith) said, she “found vast wells of compassion and kindness…and a sense of fairness and justice that irritated her husband to no end and also put him to shame. She was an enormously appealing character, a favorite of audiences, who no doubt saw in…her noble spirit a kind of inspiration.”

At a time in our nation’s history when racism is once again rearing its ugly head, I contend that we need more Edith Bunkers!

Gloria: How come you married Daddy instead of Freddie Witthauser?

Edith: Well, I liked being called a “Goddess of Beauty”, but somehow it seemed more permanent when your father called me a dingbat.

No, Edith, you really weren’t a dingbat. Not then. Not now.

The word is “hero.”