January 4, 2013Dear Sir,Good gracious me, more half baked ideas in the Letters to the Editor in today’s Royal Gazette; this time from a Clevelyn Crichlow, who compares …. “a child, abused throughout its early childhood, may become twisted and psychologically wounded by the experience …..” and the history of slavery. What nonsense. If you want to compare child abuse and the history of slavery though, then think of this; when a child is abused, do we believe that the child’s great, great, great grandchildren will be damaged by that abuse? No. Then why should we believe that the history of slavery will damage today’s black people — unless they allow it to of course?I am not saying some black people do not feel abused by history, but that is their prerogative. The wonderful thing about saddling white people who are alive today with the terrible history of slavery of yesteryear is that it is impossible for white people today to right the wrongs of yesterday. That is great for people like Eva Hodgson who keep beating on the same old drum of history — and there is nothing white people can do about it, because history cannot be changed! Wow, that means they can go on and on and on, playing the same old tune.By keeping our eyes on history and the impossible task of changing historic wrongs, these people take our eyes off the wrongs that are being perpetrated today. That means we won’t be moving forward and we won’t be working toward bettering our own conduct toward others; we will be locked into the past which cannot be changed. (Let me state here that I believe we must study the past diligently so that we will never forget it, or we are doomed to repeat it.) My idea of brotherly love toward any man, woman or child of any religion or colour is how I conduct myself toward that man, woman or child. I am responsible for myself and for the history I am helping to make by my actions, but I am not responsible for the past, created by other people’s actions. We, as individuals, both black and white and every other colour, are responsible for our today — and by our actions of today, we are responsible for tomorrow — but again, we are not responsible for any history before our birth. Now to bring this letter to a close. Comparing abused children to slavery does not work; see above.MARK EMMERSONPembroke