Washington Post. While it's laudable that their pages honor the memory of slaves long-dead, where they struggle mightily is in their defense of a majority of the living
In Courtland Milloy's “Washington's birthday got spotlight right: On his slaves” he fails to practice the ancient wisdom in the Latin phrase De mortuis nihil nisi bonum: “of the dead (say) nothing but good.” Last Monday—on what would have been George Washington's 284th birthday—our intrepid race-scribbler visited our first president's home, Mount Vernon. And unlike the rest of us who embrace the everyday tolerances of the 21st century such as generations of accepted interracial marriage—and newly established gay nuptials—only Mr. Milloy is surprised that the slaves' contributions are honored with a special wreath-laying ceremony. For starters, he should have had a clue as the event occurred at the Slave Memorial Circle: a place whose name, and very existence, denotes honor to the mistreated ancestors of our black American brothers.
