To the editor:

I am writing this as a letter to the editor in regard to the question of our state apologizing for slavery.

I have a version of such an apology that I would personally like to offer to Sen. Sanders and the other apology-seekers of our state:

Your people were mistreated for many years in our country – things needed to change, THEY DID, and for this I am thankful and glad.

I notice that Sen. Sanders is not only a state senator, he is an attorney; so he holds two positions in life that many might find something to be proud and thankful for – yet he, instead of recognizing the blessings in his life and the good changes that have happened to the black community, wants to have innocent people apologize for something they did not do to people who have no valid complaints today.

What will happen to Mr. Sanders to ever make him recognize the changes of the last 40 years that have allowed him to be not a mistreated person, but a state senator and an attorney?

My type of apology is all he deserves and if he doesn’t forgive and forget the old hurts that don’t apply to him today, he needs to go to the Bible, where we are taught that if we don’t forgive, we cannot be forgiven for our own sins.

For his community to continue in hate and unforgiveness, they are saying to God, “I will not forgive – you can send me to hell if you want to.”

This would be a foolhardy thing to do, and it is going to happen to thousands of blacks if they continue to hold to this type of unwarranted attitude.

June Savell

Eight Mile, Ala.