Our kids watched in silence at the old news reels of white firemen turning high pressure water hoses on crowds of black men and women, white policemen letting loose vicious dogs to attack black protesters, and angry white citizens hurling insults and more at young black students being escorted into court-mandated integrated schools.
We have taken the tour through the old South where human trafficking was a way of life for over 200 years. Humans were bought and sold and bred like cattle to produce bigger and stronger workers. Children were ripped from mothers’ arms, fathers sold off to the highest bidders, and all in the expectation of zero tolerance of objection from the subjugated. Those who broke the white rules were beaten, whipped or hanged. It all had the purpose of keeping the natural order of the South, or so the slaveholders thought.
Slaves were a form of life considered in many cases less than human. It is a time in American history that is to be abhorred and not celebrated. It sullies the flag and the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and all that we hold dear in this country, including our Christian religion. Slavery ran counter to all these beliefs, and yet those who promoted and protected it did find ways in what little conscious they had to justify their actions.
That all should have ended with the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863. Millions of people were let loose of their wretched bondage to live free lives in the United States of America, a nation where one of our greatest leaders once said these words… "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
But Thomas Jefferson was a slaveholder himself. According to history, he owned about 600 slaves in his lifetime, helping to create wealth for himself while crushing the liberty of other children of the same creator.
A disgusting sight
Seeing the hate-filled and ignorant white supremists marching on Charlottesville, Virginia a couple of weeks ago is as disgusting a sight as I’ve ever seen in this country. Listening to their out-of-step rants should be infuriating to people of normal intelligence and civility. Their poor excuse for argument belongs to the thugs of the slave auction houses of 1800 South Carolina, and should have died with their ill-reputed masters.
Happily showing their own idiocy to the masses, the bigots of the Charlottesville hate march defied humanitary reason. They are protected by law to hold and espouse their loathsome views, but are not entitled to any respect, dignity, recognition or tribute by any self-respecting person of moral character.
Our leaders need to be just that when we as a people decry such garbage. They don’t need to hem and haw, they don’t need to be praised by the likes of David Duke. They don’t even need to take time to think before denouncing this kind of thought.
They need to boldly step up to the podium and state unequivocally that this is unacceptable American behavior and it won’t be tolerated.
Anything short of that hints at acceptance, and this nation and world just can’t live in harmony with that.
Ted Almen is the publisher of the Kerkhoven Banner and three other newspapers in west-central Minnesota.