Our friend wrote that she had just seen the new movie "Selma", about civil rights demonstrations in the South and was impressed and moved. She recollected that when she attended public school in that southern city, Chicago, Illinois, she was a member of the school choir. She remembered that no black child could be given a grade of A for choir nor would be allowed to sing a solo. She remembered that some of the black kids had voices of angels.
In the book "Black Like Me", there is a time when a cashier in a railroad station is handing change to a black customer and at the last moment, purposely drops the coins and bills to the side of his hand, dumping them on the floor.
Another friend wrote today of voices of anger and outrage bubbling up in her over times when she had been mistreated. When others arbitrarily hurt you or limit you over something that is not your fault and is out of your hands, it hurts. I have never experienced very much of that sort of thing but I imagine the hurt is much wider and deeper when it continues on and on.
At the lunch table the other day, some of the guys were appalled that others at the table professed to be loyal to America and good citizens while holding the opinion that US policy and forces had hurt children of enemies and carried out other terrible misdeeds. You probably can't take over a good part of a continent, found a nation, legally approve and support slavery, create vast wealth, "win" two "world wars", carry out a police action in Korea, wage war in Vietnam, invade Iraq and Afghanistan and engage in a "cold war" with half the world or more, and do all that in a strictly honorable, humane and sinless way.
From what I can tell, my ancestors came from several different nations of Europe. I am confident that, at times, they were quite nasty and cruel to each other and to opposing forces. I might be a better, cleaner, more upright person if I came from pure stock and were a sinless person but I am not. I expect that when St. Peter and his staff examine me, my actions, those of my parents and forbearers, I will be amazed at the long, terrible list of misdeeds. How about you?
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
