These are pictures I picked up off of Pinterest to use as “inspiration” for the novel I am writing. It is set in the antebellum period in North Carolina and revolves around a woman who, while passing for white, helps to lead slaves to freedom. That is the simple synopsis.
Last night a church in South Carolina experienced a horrendous, unimaginable event. A young white man entered an African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charelston South Carolina and killed nine people after sitting through the prayer service. It is being called by the authorities a hate crime, which I’m sure it was.
I don’t usually blog about current events, but this felt like someone punched me in the gut and then some. I spend and have spent the better part of a year researching, studying and writing about slavery. Often I’m stopped cold while reading or writing, when I think we are only 150 or so years from the actual horror that slavery was.
Then, as I’m about to go to sleep, I read a FB post that tells me, a traditionally black church was invaded and desecrated and nine people lost their lives. Needless to say, I did not sleep well. I am devastated, appalled, heartbroken; and yes, I know racially motivated crimes happen all the time. This crime, hit me hard. Sometimes that happens.
Why? I am one half of an interracial marriage. I am the mother of a biracial child. I am a family member of an African American family through marriage. I am worried about racially motivated crimes.
The bigger picture. When, if ever, will this end. There is racial unrest all over the world. I know this. I also know that it is pointless sometimes to go tilting at windmills.
So, I sit here as broken-hearted this morning as I am at times, when a portion of the research I do for my story, tears a hole in my soul. I read and write about what no human being should ever have had to endure. Then, I see that we have learned nothing. The nine people who lost their lives would possibly agree with me. May they rest in peace.
I hope I have been clear if not eloquent. This is a subject that is so emotional for me that I find myself at a loss to adequately put into words what I am feeling.
Read between the words, my friends. See my broken heart.
Hate is a terrible thing…….hugs to you, Terry. Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2015 16:18:45 +0000 To: tinamcbride@hotmail.com
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Thx Tina. ❤️
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Hugs beautiful one! I don’t understand it either. These people most certainly are in the minority but they cause so much grief
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