Note: I wrote this article after reading an incredibly ignorant, tone deaf letter to the editor in my local paper. The author entitled her piece “I am sorry for your apology” in which she astoundingly condemns apologies made by Drew Brees and Nike.
I am sorry for colonial Loyalists who chose to obey a king instead of choosing a revolution that could promise liberty and a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. (And please remember it was a man of African and Native American descent, Crispus Attucks, who was considered the first casualty of our American Revolution, gunned down by a British soldier in the streets of Boston.)
I am sorry for the people of the Confederacy who chose to be traitors to the idea of our Constitution as they clung to the racist institution of slavery condoned by their clergy while they greedily exploited the lives of slaves for their selfish disgusting economic system.
I am sorry for the men (and women) who lacked the wisdom to allow women the right to vote for so long.
I am sorry for the Americans who saw racist violence unleashed against innocent protesters in the 1960s and did nothing to further civil rights for African-Americans as many white Americans feared the loss of their racist system of white supremacy.
I am sorry for the homophobes who tacitly and actively supported the persecution of the LBGT community for oh so many years.
I am sorry for the men (and women) who still fail to understand the patriarchal sexism rampant in our society thankfully exposed by the courageous women of the Me Too movement.
And I am sorry for the people of today who do not understand the meaning of the inspiring protests occurring in so many cities across our country, and even the world, when we all saw a white policeman, entrusted to protect our community, instead, use that power for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, to viciously take the breath away forever from a helpless hand-cuffed George Floyd.
All these people, whether through ignorance, fear, cowardice, hypocritical delusional religious indoctrination, or selfishness, sadly chose freely to be on the wrong side of moral history.
But thankfully, from the American Revolution, and forward through the Civil War, Seneca Falls, Selma, Stonewall, and now Minneapolis, wise true patriots sought to bend the arc of history toward, neither conservative nor progressive, but true American values of “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
These heroes, some famous and many more unknown, risked their lives to do what was right to make America true to its best ideals. They chose to do what was right for their fellow citizens and make this country and the world a better, more moral universe. I am not sorry for them; instead, I applaud them and hope that our children and grandchildren will not be guided by the scourges of greed, selfishness, patriarchal sexism, ignorance, racism and hatred, but by the light of moral truth and love so that our nation can be a beacon to the world for truth, liberty, justice, and equality.
Today, we see, finally and long overdue, the statues of traitors who defended the structural racism of slavery during the Civil War come tumbling down. Soon, despite some of our so-called leaders still foolishly and ignorantly clinging to the past heroes of Confederate racism, our military bases will be renamed for true heroes of America. NASCAR has now banned the Confederate flag. The NFL has belatedly, but finally, recognized that what Colin Kaepernick had to say was fundamentally American, true and just.
I am sorry that some still do not see that American protesters throughout our nation’s history have led the way to a better nation and world for all. But with malice toward none, with charity for all, I hope, because we live in an America where we are free and where we can learn, that one day, they too will, uncoerced, choose to be on the right side of moral history.