thats a long time

THATS A LONG TIME

twelve years is a long time
thats how long it takes your child to go from kindergarten
to high school graduation
thats how long it took me to go from college to medical school
to residency to practicing medicine
thats a long time twelve years

this weekend we went to see the movie 12 years a slave
i dont think i will ever be the same after watching this movie
it was disturbing in its brutality
but also disturbing in what it all means

the main character a free black man in the early 1800s in
the northeast united states who made his living as a violinist
he was married with two kids
living the life that few black people lived in this time
in sharp contrast to how most blacks were living elsewhere
then
one day he was snatched off the streets of washington dc by
a slave trader and was taken deep into the south to be sold
at a slave auction
oh the indignities this free man went through at the slave auction

the atrocities he saw and felt over the next 12 years
his 12 years as a slave

the beatings the rapes the starving the hardships the forced labors
the tearing apart of families
the enslavement of a race of people
the scars of which we still see even today in our society

one scene in the movie has the main character now a slave
being forced to beat another female slave beyond what my
senses could tolerate
the brutality of it all and the thoughts that come to my mind
all hit me at once as i tried to watch this scene

to think we as a society were this brutal
are we still like that
to think that my  ancestors could have been a part of it
since some of my family has done a good evaluation of
out ancestory and have identified them back to the 1600s
farmers merchants teachers
and
im sad to say slave owners
were they a part of these atrocities
then
through dna analysis there is slave dna in our ancestory
i know that that dna didnt get there
without violence being involved

so during that movie this all came to a head
and i almost became overwhelmed with emotions
as i watched that brutal beating

it was difficult to watch and to think about
and
all i can say or do about it is
to say
im sorry
and
to do whatever i can to fight racism in our country

yes 12 years is a long time
to be a slave

the organicgreen doctor