Just do it, Cornyn! It won't hurt--I promise!

Here's an eloquent plea from Dallas Morning News' James Ragland for Sen. John Cornyn to step up and be an honorable man:

John Cornyn, it's time – past time – to do the right thing.

Do what our other Texas senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison, did – join the overwhelming majority of senators co-sponsoring an apology for Congress' failure to outlaw lynching decades ago.

Sure, it may be just a symbolic gesture at this point, but it's the back-straightening political symbolism we need to help heal a nation that has long suffered from racial animosity.

At its worst, our nation stood coldly by, shamefully really, and watched savage vigilantes and brutal mobs take injustice into their own hands by lynching people, most of whom were black.

An NAACP study found 4,742 lynchings in 43 states from 1882 to 1968. Mr. Cornyn, our great state of Texas ranked third with 493.

Shameful.