In news from Alligator, the tiny Mississippi Delta hamlet has elected its first black mayor, Tomaso Brown, an Obama-inspired Pericles who ousted veteran Lord Mayor Robert Fava, an elderly area cracker who runs one of the town's only three businesses. London's Daily Telegraph picks up the tale of progress in the hinterlands:
Some youngsters ran into Mr Fava's store to taunt him. "They was pulling down their pants, shouting, 'Kiss my black ass, because we got a black mayor', swinging their things around and throwing stuff," said Jennifer Green, 31, a black mother of 10.Miss Green is dubious about whether Mr Brown, whose duties will include organising contract labour, overseeing the water and sewer systems and distributing any grant monies, can deliver. "He says there's going to be lots of changes and everything with all these kids running around here.
"But he do the same thing they do, drinking beer and stuff. You've got to stay at home and study the town. Alligator is the kind of place where if you leave your door open, when you come back there ain't nothing in your house.
"There's guns. Kids knock on your door asking for a beer at three and four in the morning. I get 14-year-olds asking me if I want weed or whatever. They should have just left Mr Robert in there.
"Tomaso won't do anything about any of it. He's going to put his hand in the cookie jar just at the wrong time and get caught."
Her boyfriend J. R. Cook, who is white, disagreed. "It was about time for Robert to get out. He was tired. And there ain't no saints around here. They may be Christian people but when they get out of church it makes no difference."
As I never tire of saying: Flannery O'Connor was a realist.
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Brown: "I just want the people to be comfortable. Small towns like this depend on government funding and that’s what we’re seeking. "
Yup.
Brown: "We rely on the intercession of the mighty above us to shower us with indulgences."
You mean that I am a Yellow Dog Democrat and rather swallow my own tongue before voting for a Republican. Yeah, what of it?
"Ten kids by 31? And anyone is surprised why she's in poverty and why her kids will be too?"
I assume we are to regard her as a role model for not using contraception.
The article brings to mind the book, “Paris Trout” by Peter Dexter. Publisher's Weekly says "an expertly crafted and bleakly fascinating tale of social conflict and madness in the deep South."
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