The Blind Slave Girl

This morning, Friday, February 17, 2017 as I lay in bed waiting for the sun rays to shine through the window and announce a new day, my thoughts turned to the blind girl of 1873.

I had read an item in an 1873 newspaper about a blind girl and wondered what people of her day must have thought of us, this future generation.

Did they think that in a hundred years; 1973, we would have conquered blindness?

Did they look to the future of a hundred and forty four years; 2017, and think that we would have conquered not only physical blindness but also spiritual blindness.

My thoughts were on this 1873 blind girl and then I wondered; “what would a little blind slave girl be thinking of as she came of age at an Alabama plantation in 1862”.

Can you imagine, as I did, in this early morning hours of February 2017; what did that poor little 1862 blind slave girl think?

She would have heard the sounds of the US Civil War around her. She would have heard the sounds of the Alabama plantation. She had heard the sounds of the slave quarters on the Alabama plantation. She would have heard the crack of the whip and the moans of anguish coming from her people. What must she have thought of her life?

Would she have thought about us in 2017, the one hundred fifty four years into the future?

Would she have thought that surely by 2017 we would have conquered not only physical blindness but social, political, environmental and spiritual blindness?

What do we say to that little blind slave girl in the early morning of this month of February 2017? Do we tell her we are sorry, that we have not conquered any of those things?  Do we tell her that we not only have we not conquer any of those things but we are in danger of being not only blind, but being deaf and mute?

I saw the sun rays come through the window and I thought, “I must write this down.”

Happy “Black History” month of February 2017.  I wonder if by 2117…

Thank You

Jose from Clarkston, Michigan