Cleaning up our messes
North Carolina has a long and dirty history of state-sponsored violence, from the destruction of black culture in Wilmington (PDF) at the turn of the century to the practice of forced sterilizations only 50 years ago. But we have almost no history of setting things right.
Rob Schofield reports today on the continuing efforts of State Representative Larry Womble to bring our state to do the right thing:
While the various political candidates were blasting away at each other this week on every issue and non-issue under the sun, a handful of state legislators gathered in Raleigh for a modest little hearing on an issue that ought to be front and center. The subject was “eugenics” and the state of North Carolina’s shameful legacy of forced sterilizations.
Yesterday, for what seems like the umpteenth time, State Representative Larry Womble of Winston-Salem addressed a small group of interested people who had gathered for a meeting of the “House Select Committee on Compensation for Victims of the Eugenics Sterilization Program.” Though uneventful, uncovered by the mainstream media (as far as I can tell) and mostly repetitive of a story that’s been told way too many times not to have already spurred some real action, the meeting went well and was informative.
To her credit, Lt. Gov. Perdue sent a representative who endorsed the group’s action. Perdue has actually made action on this issue a campaign pledge.
I salute Representative Womble for carrying this banner at a time when most people simply shrug their shoulders and say "tough shit" to those who have been grievously harmed in our name. It matters not whether it happened last week, last year, or a hundred years ago. It matters not whether we're facing unprecedented economic stress.
We have a moral obligation to make amends.
- James's blog
- 509 reads
I'm glad to hear that Rep. Womble is keeping this alive.
Eugenics is an awful thing, a disgusting thing to read or think about. We'd much rather not. It was bad when Hitler did it; it was bad when we did it. We must never forget that.
Interesting bit of NC trivia about that
I think it is extremely important that states remember these parts of our histories. An interesting factoid about how it came to be that NC is being confronted by this history is that while states all over the South (and I'm not sure, but I think North as well) engaged in this practice, a substantial number of them destroyed all records pertaining to the practice -- effectively erasing documentation of their participation.
North Carolina didn't destroy her own records, though, which is why she is standing out there somewhat singularly facing this music. Kind of ironic, but evidence of the kind of effects that individuals who value history above political concerns can have. Somewhere, probably long since buried, is an archivist who did the right thing.
This is a segue for my concern that if Dick Cheney has his way, many, many, many records documenting many issues of concern to this nation will be destroyed during the transition from the Bush Administration to the next one. He is asserting that vice presidential records are not subject to the Presidential Records Act that requires preservation of these documents.
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing
-Edmund Burke
Not only Cheney's stuff,
there have been several agencies that were encouraged by the White House to pull documents related to their own operations and either destroy them or seek a higher classification to avoid public scrutiny.
I am somewhat of a historian (that was my major), and this really pisses me off. There's nothing more frustrating than following a research thread only to find the key information missing or blocked.
this is exciting
I'm happy to see the action and interest on this.
Only the most deluded of us could doubt the necessity of this war. - John McCain
Leigh
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