To Kill a Mockingbird

It is hard to imagine that this is the 50th anniversary of the publication of "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. It is also hard to imagine that the book is being attacked. Written at the time of Brown vs Topeka Board of Education, who would have thought it would be decried in 2010 as being too "liberal" or a "book about the limitations of liberalism". One of America's best loved books is being criticized for it "politics".

Told by the 6-year old Scout, it a story about her father Atticus Fitch, a small town southern white lawyer. The story is a message of kindness and empathy. It's about a willingness to do the right thing regardless of consequences. Scout's father took on the legal defense of a poor African-American man of the South knowing he would not prevail in a court of law. Atticus said "its when you know you're licked before you begin that you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win but sometimes you do." His compassion for the man's family was unbelievably portrayed at a time when African-Americans were being sprayed with fire hoses for peacefully marching for civil rights.

I can't imagine anyone reading the book and not returning to read it again. I must have read it 5 times as I tried to understand where the equality was in my own life. Each time I read it, I wished I could have been Scout. The librarian asked me why I kept checking out the book. I told her I just wanted to read it again, and again and again.

Scout is totally real and imperfect. She is not difficult to understand. Some have said that Harper Lee fashioned Scout from herself. The author has always denied it. Scout is a young girl with grounded self-esteem surrounded by affection. I believe the reason Harper Lee did not write another book is that nothing more could be said so wisely, affectionately, or courageously. Scout had said it all. That 6 year old said it all for me. There is a world where families are not dysfunctional.

Happy anniversary Mockingbird!

M-B