Virginia Apologizes For Its Role In Slavery

Slavery was abolished in 1865 by the 13th Amendment, but the Virginia General Assembly just got around to voting unanimously to express “profound regret” for the state’s role in slavery.

Is an apology or an expression of “profound regret”, 142 years after slavery was abolished, a profound joke or an act of healing?

Some argue that the resolution sends an important symbolic message, but I tend to side with those who think it’s unnecessary and foolish. What next? A resolution to demonstrate “profound regret” at the genocide of American Indians, or a proclamation that the Holocaust was an obscenity? Actually the measure also expressed regret for “the exploitation of Native Americans.”

Profound regrets over slavery won’t do Jack to alleviate the abysmal living conditions of too many minorities in the former capitol state of the Confederacy.

Profound regrets won’t bring back the multitudes of African Americans and Native Americans who were lynched and tortured.

Profound regrets at this late stage of the game only serves to open up old wounds, and it’s nothing but an insult to African Americans. We kidnapped you from your homes in Africa and sold you into slavery, but hey, we are profoundly sorry.

Slavery is a dead issue; what the Virginia General Assembly should be addressing is the wide and deepening gulf between the poor (disproportionately African American) and the wealthy.

I am profoundly sorry at the stupid antics of the Virgnina General Assembly.