Every once in a while you read something that makes you want to jump up and say: "Yes." Goldie Taylor's splendid article, "Show Me the Papers" about President Obama's releasing his birth certificate is right on target. I don't know how we have come to this place except there is more racism in our society than I thought. I had hoped that we were further along... but I guess the first President to break the color line must face a lot. I remember reading when the first black man (who later became Mayor of Charlotte) came to Clemson what a hard time he had. I remember the resistance of white coaches to draft black players for their teams and I remember reading the way Jackie Robinson was treated when he broke the color line in baseball. And I was in Louisville when Muhammed Ali was roundly hated by so many by being an uppity n.....Carson McCullers, the novelist said one time: "It is a shame that the whole human race needs somebody to look down on."
I hang on to that quote by Doestoevsky: "What keeps me going is that I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that in the world's finale something so great will come to pass that it's going to suffice for all our hearts, for comforting of all our sorrows, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity. And I want to be there when suddenly everyone understands what is has all been for."
I read Taylor's article yesterday and saw her talk about it on Rachel Maddow's program - I think it is right on the money.
ReplyDeleteI also love your Dostoevsky quote. Thanks for sharing this!