The Georgia legislature is closing their session, and they haven’t apologized.
Oh, perhaps it should be explained what apology some were expecting.
You may not be aware of this, but seven generations ago there were people around here who owned slaves. Mr. Lincoln declared holding the slaves to be illegal, then Billy Sherman cut a swath through the heart of Georgia to drive the point home, and then Bobby Lee gave up his sword up in Vir-ginny to seal the deal.
You might not be aware because it did happen oh so very long ago.
And it was perpetrated by people who are oh so very dead.
But there are some who feel that the state should apologize.
I’m all for apologizing when I’ve made a mistake. I go out of my way to avoid hurting others (although I am less considerate when it comes to politicians), and will gladly apologize when I offend.
But the offense must be mine in order for me to apologize.
An example: We went to Paris for our first anniversary (two incomes, no kids – we did things like that back then), and had a great time. But one day we seemed to be following in the wake of a woman who was the perfect picture of The Ugly American. Museums weren’t open when it was convenient for her, everyone was rude to her, and why didn’t anyone speak English?
(You were in France, ma’am; maybe you should have learned some of their language.)
Anyway, we were right behind her at one of the museums, she left a restaurant just as we were going in…and I kept trying to think of how to say something like “We’re from Canada, eh?” just to distance us from her. But I can not apologize for others’ behavior and choices.
I can say, “What a shame that some people are so ignorant;” but an apology is not mine to give if I am not the offending party.
Most of us have suffered some loss imposed by others. Unless your bloodline is wealthy British, somebody oppressed your folk at some point. Where possible, people should repent and apologize; but we can’t force people to apologize for that which they did not do.
By the way, I come from a family whose heritage includes those from the hinterlands of Indiana, who volunteered to fight the South as Abolitionists even before Lincoln made the abolition of slavery a plank in the Civil war platform. I’m not writing this as one stuck in a romanticized view of the glory days of the Confederacy. My people had a cross burned in their front yard because they refused to discriminate in the store they owned. I’m proud of that heritage.
And I won’t apologize for it.
