Forgiveness, Justice, And A Hug For My Uncle T

Today I really wanted to write about Dr. Henry Louis Gates getting arrested on his own property, and how he later decided to drop the matter with the Cambridge police department after they dismissed the "charges".

Yeah, I really wanted to write about that because, I'm all about forgiveness. But I'm also all about justice, so I could not fathom his not pursuing some sort of complaint.

But I did not write all day today because I went to beach. I lazed around in the sun, played with the kids, and swam in freezing cold Lake Michigan. And, just when I was beginning to think I hadn't accomplished much else beyond acquiring a serious sunburn on my back -- Let's just say I clearly needed to evenly apply the sunscreen. Or reapply it. Either way, I'm in pain right now. -- my Uncle T, my dad's brother, saved the day and kept me from total blog-slackdom.

A little while ago I checked my email and found that my dad had forwarded my blog post about our family's Sunday gathering to his brother and sister. My Uncle T responded to my dad by saying:

"What a beautiful, eloquent, emotional account by (Los Angelista) in her blog regarding our Sunday gathering, which personally liberated 40 years of my pent-up emotion regarding the X (Irish/my dad) Family perspective of our parents and relatives and, of course, many more years for the travails encountered by Y's (black/my mom's) Family, long before the X Family was in the picture.

This was a fabulous life learning experience for all of us present, and my true direction is the impact these issues have on our children moving forward, as they are the future, right before our eyes (misty as mine are at the moment). I was a college student @ Northern Illinois Univ. in 1969 when X and Y decided to marry and form a perfect union. I never learned nearly as much from any of my textbooks and classes as l did from them over the subsequent years, as they are the true heroes in this story, since they are the ones that had to endure the disdain from all the bigots belittling them from all directions. But endure they did, and that, my friends, is a very powerful life-experience of handling adversity through love."

My Uncle T also forwarded these comments to me, and told me I was free to share them with you all. So, I am sharing them for sure. And crying all over again.

What happened to Skip Gates in Cambridge is the unhappy result of racism. It's sad to see the same-ole-same-ole trotted out. You know, the "There was a black man and he scared me because he was so black and scary," story. But I'll say it again: If my family can get it together and overcome the hurts of racism, there is hope for us all.

Really, if we can apologize, forgive and take the first steps forward to forge something new, who's to say our society cannot do the same?

No, it's not easy. In fact, the process might just hurt more than my extremely painful sunburn. But it's so worth it, even if it's only because I got to read such an incredibly heartfelt note from my Uncle T.

With that, I'm going to go slather more aloe vera gel on myself. And I will once again cry tears that have nothing to do with my sunburn at all. And here's a virtual hug to my Uncle T who is loved very, very much.