Our nation is a family, inextricably linked by the DNA of our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of this great nation. Like all families we have our triumphs and joys, our arguments and dissents.
And, like all families, we have our secrets -- those skeletons that lurk just behind a slightly ajar closet door. Skeletons that fracture.
Some wish to open the door and exorcise those skeletons, speaking their truth to how those skeletons shaped their views and place in the family. Yet others would prefer to shut the door completely and exist in a world that dismisses the troubles, the sound and fury of the uncomfortable.
But, as any family therapist would say, all families must deal with the uncomfortable, lest dysfunction and fragmentation eclipse love and fidelity.
Last week at the Democratic National Convention, First Lady Michelle Obama made a declaration intended to honor the miraculous growth and promise of our nation. She said, “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women playing with their dogs on the White House lawn.”
Her statement caused a backlash from some, questioning why she had to bring up slavery. Conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly expressed that the White House was not built only by slave labor and those slaves were well fed and housed, as though that mitigates the fact that slave labor was used to build the home of freedom and liberty.
Not talking about our skeleton – slavery or otherwise -- does not render those remnants ineffectual. No, they fester, dehumanize, and dismiss and will continue to do so until we simply devolve into a house divided.
I'm Joe Flynn, and that's my Perspective.
