I was reading a scholarly journal today entitled "The Meaning or the Fight: Frederick Douglass and the Memory of the Fifty Fourth Massachusetts" by a scholar by the name of David W. Blight. He argued that Americans have forgotten the meaning of the blacks' involvement in the Civil War. We are surrounded by romantic notions of what happened, but even more important than remembering what happened is remembering the meaning of what happened.
The free blacks were called upon by Frederick Douglass to join the fight. Why? They were free already, weren't they?
Yes, but they had to go deeper than that. According to Blight's interpretations of Douglass's intentions, the blacks joined the fight for "self-defense through learning the 'use of arms'; self-respect by proving the manhood and courage of black people; self-involvement by controlling their own destiny and making their own history; and finally [...] retribution against slaveholders.”
It wasn't enough to be free. They had to claim their dignity--their integrity as human persons.
That's what we have to do today, as members of the Pro-Life Movement. Children are being conceived in a free country, but they are being treated as property rather than as persons. It's not enough for them to be conceived in a free country; we have to help restore to them their personhood.
Don't forget the meaning of the fight.
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