Perspectives alter views of race debate

The historic facts Rev. Jeremiah Wright spoke about are indisputable, more right than wrong.

They have been stated many times before: By Frederick Douglass on the 4th of July, 1852; and on the 4th of July, 1999; and again in 2003 by constitutional scholar, journalist and nationally award-winning author Linda Monk.

Speaking facts without passion is stating "impersonal" historical facts. Speaking these same facts with passion is stating "personal" historical facts.

Facts, i.e., slavery, are preserved in three places in our Constitution: the 1858 Supreme Court decision that the 'person' called Dred Scott was property; the 1896 Supreme Court decision that separate was equal; and the unlegislated but legally enforced Jim (Jane) Crow laws. Include that all treaties with Native Americans were broken; the Trail of Tears; Manzanar; Tule Lake, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, etc.

Some affected people personally, and other people impersonally. A conflict can occur within when the personal and private sensibility conflicts with the impersonal and public presentation. Without being spoken, personal sensibilities can fester and sometimes erupt.

An open dialogue about, and from these two perspectives might open eyes and hearts to form a more perfect union of the United States of America.

Barbara Joan Zeitz

St. Charles