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He wrote this to me yesterday; I thought it was quite poignant. The man is a retired Navy officer and now plays with a Blues band.
When you have freedom, you must remember that someone BEFORE you paid the ultimate price for that freedom you now may take for granted. Freedom that is taken for granted is freedom that can still be lost. And while the election of a non-white president in this country is a tremendous leap forward, we must remember and be aware of those that didn't vote for him simply because of the color of his skin. Racial prejudice and hatred is still alive and still very dangerous. In some places and with some groups it is out in the open for all to see and deal with as necessary. But the majority is still hidden, below the public viewing surface, but still there, still very real, still very dangerous.
On a earlier trip to Clarksdale, Mississippi, this year, my white wife and I (I am mixed, black and white) experienced first hand the hidden bigotry. Nothing blatantly overt, nothing that the average tourist would notice or even pay attention to, and certainly nothing directly effecting my wife and me in a bad way. But if you really paid attention there was an almost tangible feeling in the air that spoke to the underlying tension created by the black/white racial divide. Local blacks still don't look whites directly in the eye. It was so bad that one black lady selling blues CDs of her husband (who was performing on stage at the time), was talking to me and she wouldn't even look ME in the eye! Public body language in many cases still suggest a form of submission or at the very least, no challenge. My wife, when out and about alone, had several interesting tell-tale minor incidents that reaffirmed the underlying staus quo of racial relations there. Yes, things have changed, and for the most part for the better. But anyone that is so foolish as to think that it has gone away completely is just being ignorant and naive. And additionally, to think that this only happens in the South is also to be foolish, ignorant and naive.
Keep in mind here that I grew up in Virginia during the 50s. I rode a bus to a segregated school. That school was called a training school because at that time it was thought that you could train the coloreds, but you could not truly educated them. And while I did have one white friend, I was warned to be careful and respectful when around white folks in general. Consequently I grew up knowing the "game" and knowing the rules of the "game". And knowing the "game" and the rules, I managed to stay out of trouble with the white folks. And therefore when I am in an environment where those rules are in play I sense it immediately. And I sensed it, and felt it, the whole time I was in Clarksdale. Clarksdale, MS, the heart of the Mississipi Delta region, the home of blues music, cotton plantations, and at one time, large scale slavery. And while slavery and large scale cotton farming is gone, the open wounds of the past, while no longer totally visible, certainly have left scars that will always be a reminder of the past even as we move forward to a hopefully better future. But as George Santayana, who, in his Reason in Common Sense, The Life of Reason, Vol.1, wrote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
For a true change in the future we must be reminded of the past. And in doing so, embrace the good, and not only eschew the bad, but take positive steps to CHANGE the bad.
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