I write this at the risk of being ridiculed from all sides, but that never stopped me before and it won’t now.

I see all types of interviews and articles on television and in the newspapers aimed toward upcoming elections and political correctness. Some of these involved symbols of slavery, such as the use of the Confederate battle flag and alleged inequities at work and school.

This brings back memories of my younger days. Some of the interviews and articles attempt to show that somehow I should benefit from or pay for what my great-great grandfather did or had done to him.

What I am getting at is this: Slavery was wrong, dead wrong. The slave trade was horrible. However, there were some factual benefits from that trade. Had it not been for slavery, the great black leaders of this nation such as Colin Powell, Thurgood Marshall, Booker T. Washington, Martin Luther King and many others would have been born, been raised and died in Africa.

Let’s all look forward at the goodness of this country rather than wallowing in past wrongs. We should never expect to realize or pay something just because our ancestors earned it or owed it.

Remember this: it is not important who we were. What is important is who we are.