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Slavery / By Ida Faye Champion My day on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 begins as it usually does. I work out at the gymnasium. I spend a little time talking to my friends. Then I am on my way home and I need to buy a few groceries. I move to the check-out stand. They young lady behind the counter anxiously fixes her eyes on me as though she has a special for me from God. I stand before her in awe waiting for it. "Did you know," she says, "two terrorist planes have flown into the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan?" Before I can say no she starts talking again. "Another terrorist plane struck the Pentagon," she says. "Oh my God," I whisper. "Say what I hear isn't so." I feel helpless. So many people are crying and I can't do anything but watch. I close my eyes and tears fall on my face. I hurt for all the families who lost their loved ones. I wish I could stretch my arms across the country to comfort each one. Your loved ones did not die in vain; their lives are given to make America a stronger country. This might be remembered in our history books as our finest hour. And I am reminded of another time when Americans lived with terror. Many people think that Tuesday is a "Wake-up call" for America. That forces me to view another scene from the history books - slavery. It is one of the most inhumane acts in America. Think of those families, those tears, those fears. Many times the overseer beat the slave until his back dripped blood while he was tied to a tree. This is not a terrorist act from foreign interests; it's an act of American cruelty. Even when slavery was abolished, it wasn't abolished. Another scene I need to look at is the educational system for blacks. During the Reconstruction Period blacks attended integrated schools. In 1869 some of the border state in the Deep South developed a system known as "separate but equal." This system separated blacks and whites and there was no equality. Do you know that many schools in the Deep South and some border state remained segregated from 1869 to Brown v. Board of Education in 1955? That's almost a century that America has left many "children behind." The question for America is: How do you plan to help these children catch up? I don't want to appear hypocritical, but I want America to examine all the scenes in the history of our country so that no terrorist groups can never break our spirit. Our history books will keep an accurate record about the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. It will give an accurate account of the number of casualties, the billions of dollars of monetary gifts and the pints of blood given. History can not record the number of tears shed for friends and loved ones, hugs given or the number of times that blacks, white and other races join hands from the east coast to the west to sing out loud "God Bless America." |