Bitter roots run deep...

A story in the New York Daily News, reports late Senator Strom Thurmond and Rev. Al Sharpton have a notoriously historical linkage.
I think the most shocking comment on this discovery comes from Ellen Senter, the niece of the late senator in a story written for FOXNews.com .

"I doubt you can find many native South Carolinians today whose family, if you traced them back far enough, didn't own slaves," said Senter, 61, of Columbia, S.C., told The Daily News.

She added: "And it is wonderful that (Sharpton) was able to become what he is in spite of what his forefather was."

In spite of what his forefather was? He wasn't a mass murderer. He was a man who, despite being on the wrong side of a horrific part of American history, survived the ordeal and raised a family.

"Once freed, Coleman Sharpton earned a living as an elderly wood hauler, and fathered a son, Coleman Jr., who would go on to be a minister - like his grandson, the Rev. Al."

Senter's comments show me she has become what she is in spite of nearly 150 years of progress. "In spite of what his forefather was." That's a telling word, "was". It tells me she doesn't acknowledge slavery for what it "was", an evil institution that stripped a race of its humanity. Maybe I'm hung up on it, unfairly judging her, but I can't get past that word.

Maybe it's because I'm reminded who I "was" all the time. Through temptation and accusations, Satan brings up my past. He tries to shame me back into chains and rob me of the freedom won by the sacrifice of the Cross.

The FOXNews piece closes with this "One of the late senator's sons, Paul Thurmond, and a nephew, Barry Bishop, declined comment, the Daily News said."

Looks like cousin Ellen should have followed the family on this one.