Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and It's Abolition

First of all, I would like to say that, in all seriousness, this is a day worth remembering. It is sobering to remember that at the founding of our country, men were enslaved by other men. It is even more sobering to remember that the enslavers were humans just like us. Which means, that we are capable of equally horrible acts. Our time is wasted if we spend it judging the evil actions of the past. Instead, we need to focus on preventing those evil actions from ever happening again.

Sarah and I have been spending a lot of time recently discussing the repercussions of slavery and discrimination. We are interested in discovering how many social ills today are still directly or indirectly linked to slavery and to segregation. And then we are interested in curing all of those social ills. If you are interested in joining this discussion, please come over to our house for a glass of wine and some good conversation.

Today, in remembrance, I read some brief biographies of Harriet Tubman. A woman who risked her own life to save hundreds of others. We, as young people in America, have easy lives and often lose sight of the fact that a happy life is not necessarily a comfortable life. We were put here for so much more than our own pleasure. Tubman didn't just live, she changed the course of history. We have the same power within us. Sarah has a quote in her room that says, "We are all greater than we think." It's time to take hold of that statement and begin acting instead of talking, to begin thinking instead of dreaming. It's our turn to stand in the gap.

Harriet Tubman sang the following spiritual as a warning to warn escaping slaves to move from the path into the water in order to throw off pursuing dogs...

Wade in the Water

Chorus:
Wade in the water,
Wade in the water children.
Wade in the water
God’s gonna trouble the water

Who’s all those children all dressed in Red?
God’s gonna trouble the water.
Must be the ones that Moses led.
God’s gonna trouble the water.

Chorus:

What are those children all dressed in White?
God’s gonna trouble the water.
Must be the ones of the Israelites.
God’s gonna trouble the water.

Chorus:

Who are these children all dressed in Blue?
God’s gonna trouble the water.
Must be the ones that made it through.
God’s gonna trouble the water.