When George Washington helped to create and put his signature on this venerable document with the striking phrase, "We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal", he must have had a spacial lapse of memory because he was a slave owner at the time, and was so for the better part of his life.
He contributed inexorably to perhaps one of the most grievous, inhuman and diabolically evil institutions that we have experienced on this continent and one that is indelibly marked in the hearts and souls of African Americans today: the utter desecration and degradation of one human being by another in the name of commerce and in the mistaken, the grossly mistaken, belief in white supremacy.
These wounds will not heal until the reality of this obscenity is faced and cleansed. It is not an issue that can be swept under the carpet and ignored: Martin Luther King Jr didn't allow for that to happen. Nelson Mandela certainly didn't. Their bravery in the face of stupendous violence and cruelty stands as a beacon to all of us.
I went to see the movie 12 Years a Slave today, and it should be mandatory viewing for all who want to see the effects of dehumanization and the attempted break down of the human spirit, body and soul of a people, and their ultimate resilience in response to this.
Tell me: who wins?
He contributed inexorably to perhaps one of the most grievous, inhuman and diabolically evil institutions that we have experienced on this continent and one that is indelibly marked in the hearts and souls of African Americans today: the utter desecration and degradation of one human being by another in the name of commerce and in the mistaken, the grossly mistaken, belief in white supremacy.
These wounds will not heal until the reality of this obscenity is faced and cleansed. It is not an issue that can be swept under the carpet and ignored: Martin Luther King Jr didn't allow for that to happen. Nelson Mandela certainly didn't. Their bravery in the face of stupendous violence and cruelty stands as a beacon to all of us.
I went to see the movie 12 Years a Slave today, and it should be mandatory viewing for all who want to see the effects of dehumanization and the attempted break down of the human spirit, body and soul of a people, and their ultimate resilience in response to this.
Tell me: who wins?