By Hortense B. Hinton Ed.D. In Celebration of the Slave Descendants Reunion — Montpelier 2007
Remembering is sacred. It revives and brings alive... The remembered and those who are wise enough to remember. It honors their gifts to us It acknowledges their presence with us always. Let us go there, Let us be there, Let's do it again If only for a moment Let us feel the moment, ...the love, the joy, the warmth ...the pain, the fear, the terror ...the absolute jubilation Whenever we want to, just feel the need to We can go there, be there, do it again, Can we imagine, know, understand? No, not really. But we still have to... We need to remember It is dangerous to forget Don't want it to happen again Yet because of it, we are Our survival depends on it So we must go there, be there, must do it again. If only for a moment Remembering is healing. The wounds are deep, the pain recurring, cannot be ignored Don't want to just survive, want to thrive Want to be whole, bring it all together So we gotta go there, really be there, do it all over again. If only for a moment Remembering sustains us It restores us, keeps us real Keeps us moving forward, in spite of it all Without it we die - the remembered and those who failed to remember So It is good for us to go there, It is good for us to be here, It is good for us to do this again and again and again If only for a moment© June 10, 2007, Hortense B. Hinton.