Let my people go...

Sometimes a visit cuts to the core.
A look back into time,
......a reflection,
......makes one aware that not all was good.
A dark time in our history,
......crowned cotton as king,
......the throne built upon the backs of slaves.
The residues still taint us today.

Wandering the modern corridors,
......faint ghostly cries are heard
......of lives torn apart by a system of evil.
But the displays also bear witness to the best
......where the strong and true
......stood against tyranny.

One asks in disgust,
......“How could the sale of humans
......existed in the Land of the Free?”
One word, MONEY, tells the story.

We need not look far
......to witness the greed
......that feeds wars and oppression.
Will modern abolitionists rise up
......and take on the fight
......that pits the haves and have nots
......against one another
......while the robber-barons collect their gold?

Or is it too late to change the course
......that has been set?
The shackles and chains of slavery
......did not easily fall?
Only when men and women
......became too disgusted
......with the human conditions they saw
......did they rise up and heed the spiritual cry,
“Let my people go!”

Can you hear it today,
......in the cries of the poor,
......in many languages,
......in the young and old?
Listen, for they are there.
The din grows louder with the passing days.
Listen.  Listen!

The words from this old Negro Spiritual never were more real than when I recently visited the new National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. This state of the art museum chronicles the development of the National Underground Railroad that formed a network of safe houses and the heroic conductors who risked life and family to assist slaves in their journeys to freedom. Even more heroic were the men, women, and children who were willing to die to escape the tyranny of slavery. The stories are told through modern technology, historic displays, and interactive venues. In several of the interactive video displays you are asked to make decisions that, if wrong, end your dream of freedom and perhaps your life. Oprah Winfrey, in one of the movies created for the Center, tells the magnificent story of the heroism found in early Ripley, Ohio. As a person who really does not enjoy museums, I was shocked to see that I had spent over 2 1/2 hours there. (The joke in the family is that I can tour one of the Smithsonian wings in 30 minutes or less.)

A visit to the Freedom Center is much more than developing awareness of American history and factors that led to the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. It causes one to look inward and to reexamine the traditional history taught in many American schools. You are aghast that churches, Congress, the Supreme Court, and over half the nation believed that slavery was not only profitable but ordained by God. Regrettably, you also realize that similar arguments are used today to oppress and enslave in different ways. As you leave, you have a far better understanding of the spiritual "Let my people go..."