Rioters, let us not assume that any choice was easy for Robert E. Lee, or that he had our benefit of history on which to reflect. He did not like slavery, if you’ll read the account of his life, but said, “I will not draw my sword against Virginia.” He was a man torn by the choice he had to make.
No one I know loves the pain in our country’s past. Maybe we should redefine what statues are for, to remind us of how far we have come as a people, and to see it as a scar on the skin of our history.
Let’s heal the wound and leave the scar, to remind us of the pain, and to commit ourselves to healing. Just as edges of a wound bind one to the other, let’s see ourselves as humans first, and reach across the wound and grab those on the other side.
If in death we would accept the donated heart of another race to save our own life, let us accept it while it still beats in our neighbor.
Stop hating. Start healing.
~ Alane Bertrand-Roberts
Restored People Community 