Dear editor,

If I’ve hurt anyone’s feelings in the letter “small b,” it wasn’t meant to hurt anyone. It was to let our community to know that we are all related.

Race in the dictionary tells us what race means. It appears there was a misunderstanding, for which this writer apologizes and asks forgiveness.

I do not want division in our community.

We’ve just come through a bitter election here in Selma. We need our wounds to heal and forgive and move on.

We can’t do anything about the past; it’s done. We must live in today. We can’t afford to hold onto grudges, which will not allow us to move on.

We need a healing, spiritual retreat and forgiveness. The healing will take time. When we finally heal those wounds, the better our community will be.

The meaning of race in my dictionary states the following, “race is family tribe people or nation belonging to the same; a class or kind of people unified by community of interest.”

We, here in beloved Selma, need a spiritual retreat where we can air finally all the pain of our past and let it go.

I was in a retreat in California a few years back. We all wrote down our most painful experience and put them in a large drum and burned all that pain. We prayed that it would not every return to us.

We have a new city government. Let’s burn the pain of the past, clearing the way for a better Selma. We can’t afford to continue with the unforgiving hearts. Our children and grandchildren deserve better.

We need to all be related and have friendship. Selma, be kind and compassionate to one another; forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you (Ephesians 4:32).

Love my adopted home very much. It’s my last resting place. It’s my desire to live in peace and bring peace to our nation.

Amen,

Millie Lee Dulaney