President Bush's slavery speech

On the westernmost point of African soil, where hundreds of thousands of terror-filled Africans began a voyage in chains and a life of suffering, President Bush spoke in unflinching terms about slavery. At Goree Island, Senegal, near a corridor that leads to a door marked "the point of no return," this conservative Republican president branded slavery as the crime against humanity that it was.

The tough and remorseful words were needed. At times it seems America cannot escape a past that embarrasses many, angers many more and, most regrettably, leaves too many Americans simply unfazed. Slavery has been minimized in this country, especially this part of this country, where the ghosts of a stolen and brutalized people continue to haunt the descendants of master and slave alike. ...

Bush stopped short of the official apology on behalf of his country that some civil rights leaders for years have demanded. But in his eight-minute speech that was a bold condemnation of not only slavery but also those who participated in and benefited from it, the president left absolutely no room to question what he was saying.

And it was this: Slavery was wrong. ...

... The unequivocal words came from a man who belongs to a political party that has its own tortured relationship with race- related matters. Bush's straightforward and sobering speech was intended for the ears of Africans, but the words should touch the hearts of many Americans, too.

-- The Greenville News, Greenville, South Carolina