'Bout Time

Several posts ago I wrote about a bill coming up for vote in the Virginia State Legislature. It proposed the state officially express "profound regret" for it's role in slavery and "the exploitation of Native Americans." In late February the State House and Senate passed this bill, unanimously! Now Missouri is considering a similar bill and the NAACP is calling for Georgia to follow suit. As I said when I first posted on this topic, "About time!" However, this time I'm a little more hopeful that Missouri and Georgia (maybe less hopeful about Georgia having lived there for several years), will follow Virginia's lead. But I also feel its time our federal government did the same.

Back when I first posted about why Virginia should pass the slavery apology bill, a brave unanimous poster commented "I'm sorry, I just have to say, let's just get over it. One of the biggest problems causing minorities to be opressed [sic] is directly caused by the fact that they blame everything wrong with their lives on what happened to their great great grandparents." I didn't respond. I had already made as persuasive case as I could for my support of the bill (scroll down and read "Is It Time Yet?" to read it). In my experience, you can't fight bigotry and stupidity with argument. Sometimes all you can do is state your belief and hope that it will implement or continue a discussion about something that had heretofore been considered an absolute.

This comment was very close to what VA Del. Frank D. Hargrove, an 80-year-old Republican, said when the bill was first proposed. He infuriated black leaders (and most every other sane, thinking person), by saying "black citizens should get over" slavery. After be excoriated by the press, he later scrambled to attach his name to a resolution celebrating "Juneteenth," a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. I wonder if the anonymous commenter has had a similar change of heart.

So now Virginia has apologized and we can move on, right? Absolutely not. We have a young man who is intellectually challenged living with us. In order to help him understand complex concepts I often come up with "key words" that he can grasp easily in order to illustrate what course of action he should take. When he makes a mistake, I ask him to remember "the 4 Rs:" Recognize that you made a mistake, take Responsibility for you mistake, show Regret by apologizing and finally make it Right.

Virginia has completed the first three steps. The federal government has really only taken the first step. I hope that sometime the attitude of the anonymous poster (and Del. Hargrove for that matter), is a moot point because we've already completed all 4 steps. Only then will we be able to "get over it" and move on with repairing the damage done by slavery and the treatment of native Americans.