It’s surreal.

I’m watching my state slip into another world, certainly not this one. The State of Tennessee has become something Lewis Carroll would have trouble getting a grip on.

Up on a limb is the fat Cheshire Cat – our Republican Lt. Gov. Randy McNally – grinning at the proceedings below. Leading his party’s cruel and targeted legislation against the LGBTQ community while engaging in a flirtatious back-and-forth on Instagram with a 20-year-old man wearing a dinner napkin.

Justin J. Pearson sworn back into Tennessee House of Representatives

McNally, 79, was basically grooming the young man for a position, and I don’t mean politics.

Meanwhile below, the Mad Hatter – or perhaps the Red Queen, Republican Speaker Cameron Sexton – is running around the house floor screaming, “Off with their heads!” He politically decapitated two elected representatives and almost a third.

Yeah, let’s make Sexton the Red Queen. He needs to be in drag for this exercise.

The horrid crime committed by the three representatives, their unforgivable transgression, their attack on all we hold dear – worse, said Sexton, than the insurrection and attack on our Capitol ­– was to protest gun violence from the house floor without permission.

People died in the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Lives and careers were lost. The foundation of our republic was cracked.

The two who were removed – literally expelled – from the Tennessee General Assembly were also guilty of being Democrats and of the even larger crime of protesting while Black.

You know, being uppity. Can’t have that.

They are Justin J. Pearson of Memphis and Justin Jones of Nashville, two young men in their late 20s. The third person facing ouster was Gloria Johnson of Knoxville who missed being expelled by a single vote. She is white.

We need to get rid of the Black boys, but the white woman can stay. She’s learned her lesson. To her credit, Gloria Johnson knows exactly why she still has a seat, and she’s standing by Pearson and Jones.

When Sexton called for that vote, he disenfranchised tens of thousands of Tennesseans in Nashville and Memphis on a whim.

Their votes were stolen while we watched. No phony charges of ballot box shenanigans, no magic influx of absentee votes. No melting hair dye declarations.

Their votes were stolen while we watched. Part of the evidence of the three breaking the rules was a video of the protest, a video recorded by a Tennessee House of Representatives member. That recording was also a violation of the rules. The name of that House member was never offered, nor was that member expelled.

Their votes were stolen while we watched.

In fact, their votes were stolen while the whole country watched. This adolescent muscle-flex, this junior high hissy fit, this racist knee-jerk, this blatant abuse of power, this embarrassing lack of judgment put Tennessee in the national spotlight again.

We found a special place in America’s heart when we took away a woman’s right to make decisions about her health.

We made it into America’s living rooms when we stopped the deadly threat of dressing in drag.

We captured America’s attention when we led the way in stealing money from public schools to give it to private schools.

We endeared ourselves to the nation when we did away with pesky training and licensing and allowed any of our lovable yahoos to strap on a gun and go have some fun.

And we’ve led the national news again when we stood two young Black men up and stripped them of everything for daring to speak out against the shooting death of children and adults a few miles from the state capitol.

We made the national news as the first line of defense for the gun lobby as the champions of unrestricted death, and as the first line of defense for racism and the blatant removal of duly elected Black legislators who to stood up to white power.

Makes you proud.

Nashville’s Metro Council met and voted unanimously to return their representative Justin Jones to the legislature. Our County Commission met and voted unanimously to return our representative Justin Pearson to the legislature. It should be noted that none of the Memphis Republican members attended the Commission session or voted, a missed opportunity to show solidarity against injustice.

Jones’ legal team is led by former United States Attorney General Eric Holder. Pearson is represented by Burch, Porter & Johnson, a noted Memphis firm with serious civil rights chops that once represented Martin Luther King, Jr.

It should be noted that the lawyers aren’t there to advocate for the return of the two legislators. That’s a given. They’re there because this is Tennessee, Wonderland, and the Red Queen might still mess with Mr. Jones and Mr. Pearson.

Return of their full rights and privileges while they await a special election must be assured. Unbelievably, as this situation proves, the diminishing of Black people is still a favorite Tennessee pastime.

Unlike Alice in Wonderland, a trip down the Tennessee General Assembly rabbit hole seems to have a destination: roughly 1953. A time when white men made all the important decisions, and Black people knew their place. A time when women made Duncan Hines cakes and waited patiently for affirmation from their husband, with a gun in his waistband and one in her apron pocket – a happy time.

A time as real as Wonderland.

A time that never truly existed because the human spirit can’t be formed and molded in someone else’s image, because the human spirit can’t be restrained by laws and actions meant to crush it.

The human spirit and Tennessee are at war. Fortunately, the human spirit is bulletproof, and make no mistake, all of this is about guns and bullets.

Pearson and Jones are back. They went down the rabbit hole as two Democratic minority members of a Republican supermajority Tennessee General Assembly. They returned as national symbols of racist legislative overreach and living proof of the gun lobby’s ownership of our legislature.

As to the final effect, I defer to Jefferson Airplane:

“Go ask Alice

When she’s ten-feet tall”

Good job, guys.

I’m a Memphian, and courage warrants applause.