Bloody Sunday

I grew up when there were still "separate but equal" facilities and Blacks were treated poorly. I remember the Freedom Riders and the National Guard in the streets. So, I do not mean to diminish the struggles of the civil rights movement but long before Selma there was another struggle to make all men free. Yes it started out as a states rights movement but quickly morphed into a crusade to free the slaves. New estimates place the number of men killed during the "Civil War" reached 750,000! I have never heard any Black historian, minister, or civil rights leader offer a grain of thanks for men who died in that horrible slaughter. Owning slaves was a terrible practice that long outlived the advance of society and its abolition was as sure to come as day follows night. What annoys me is the President who said "we are in a post racial" world but attended ceremonies which only open and magnify old wounds. He is the great divider. This is the same president who chose to go golfing instead of attend the monumental march for freedom in Paris. So as we "celebrate" Bloody Sunday please also say a prayer for the 750,000 men who died for an ideal over 150 years ago.