America must make room for the suffering to speak. "If the suffering of a people must be heard, then someone must tell the truth." Smiley, T. In the words of Cornell West, "A condition of truth is to allow the suffering to speak."
What occurred in Charlottesville, VA reminds us how some in our nation talk about the Confederate monuments that are dotted across our nation in every state as "necessary historic reminders of America's past." Yet, there remain few if any, and likely no monuments dotted across our nation in every state of our Union of Black Slaves standing in our public squares, parks and government districts as necessary historic reminders of America’s past. No state-by-state monuments at this level, to the history of Slavery in America and the lives of these people who were forced to sacrifice their lives for four hundred years to build America; nor any acknowlegement of the years their descendants are forced to suffer Jim Crow laws of oppression and racial inequality.
America bears monuments to holocausts of people that did not occur in this country. Yet, there are no such monuments (statutes) such as the confederate statutes (which require legislative approval to remove in most states) dotted across America in every state to the Holocaust of American Chattel Slavery and Jim Crow Oppression that happened on American soil, exeption is the acknowledgement of the recently opened African American History Museum in Washington, DC.
America must acknowledge this American History and not try and keep silent this history and what has happened and is continuing to happen to Black people in America, or we as a nation will never be able to move progressively forward as an inclusive nation. All of our children and our children's children will continue to pay the price of a divided nation. "A house divided unto itself cannot stand." - Matthew 12:22-28. President Lincoln framed it this way in his 'House Divided' speech on June 16, 1858: "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other."
www.alicebelcher.com - Alice L Belcher, Author of the Certification Family Violence Advocate Cohort Milwaukee, Wisconsin.