DEEP WATERS

Last night, I finished the final episode of the History Channel's TV miniseries Roots . To say I was pleasantly surprised at the historical and emotional depth of this remake of Alex Haley's 1977 miniseries Roots, based on his personal genealogical history and biography, would be an understatement. I was a young girl when I watched the first Roots with my family, and I'll never forget how much that movie impacted me so many years ago. As a matter of fact, as I watched the first episode of the remake, I sadly thought, My parents would have loved this movie. I'll miss talking about this with my Mom tomorrow. Well, in honor of my sweet parents, and my other ancestors that have gone on before me, today I want to share three themes from Roots that moved me. I could probably list ten, but here's just a few that spoke the loudest to me. 1. We African Americans were blessed with strong and brave ancestors I loved the focus on the pre-slavery era of African s...

Yesterday the doors of the National September 11 Memorial Museum opened for the first time, welcoming President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, along with families of 9/11 victims. This memorial, a 110,000 square foot exhibition built entirely underground, that runs through the 16 acre site known as "Ground Zero", holds within its walls memories of those who lost their lives that day.   On Wednesday, I watched an NBC Nightly News report featuring the museum and its director, Alice M. Greenwald. As my eyes took in the artifacts that tell the story of the tragedy of September 11 , 2001 , I was pulled into the horror once again. A hand rake used by workers to search for human remains Fragments of the aircrafts destroyed during the attack A pair of shoes that a survivor kicked off so she could escape the World Trade Center  A teddy bear collected from Ground Zero after a prayer vigil I wiped a tear as I remembered. I felt like 9/11 had happened yesterday....