I woke up this morning craving toast.  I’m not sure what it was about, but I started ransacking my kitchen looking for the loaf of sourdough I just purchased from the bakery.  The bread is usually right next to the toaster, but it had taken a walk today.  I have been known to misplace various items, so I went about tearing into cupboards and looking on every countertop in our house.  Finally, as I stared at the lonely apricot jam sitting on the counter, I picked up the phone and called my husband.  “Do you know where the bread went? I swear we had a ½ of a loaf left.”  He started laughing and explained that he was feeling lazy so he stuffed the rest of the bread into his work bag and the huge tub of chicken salad and thought that he would just make sandwiches at work.  I cracked up, “Are you making 12 sandwiches?”

Maybe it was one of those you-had-to-be there moments, but I was reminded that sometimes in our laziness and insecurity we take a lot for granted.  (Thanks honey).  It’s our assumption that we are doing the right thing and our unintentional actions become just that – lacking intentionality.  I recently returned from a trip where we visited one of the Japanese Internment Camps in California from WWII.  In stark contrast to the concentration camps I saw in Germany, the US has dismantled the entire thing, only leaving a couple of buildings.  As President Obama toured the Cape Coast Castle this week in Ghana, I too wondered in California, what the walls and ground would say if they could talk.

As I watched the movie at the tourist center, my eyes welled up with tears as I saw the families being brought on trains and buses from my home state of Washington.  They were forced to leave their homes, businesses, and friends to move 1,000 miles away and their crime --- they were Japanese.  Their lives were turned upside down and even when it was over, they were not allowed to return to any of the Pacific Coast States.  These were American citizens.  In the 80s Reagan issued an apology to these citizens and as one man in the video said, “I finally didn’t feel like a second class citizen.”

A similar apology was issued by the Senate last month about the slave trade and certain people are up in arms.  One radio announcer had this to say (taken from a CNN.com article)

"It's just a divisive grand-standing issue that makes no sense at all," said McDonough, a Republican radio host in Baltimore. "No. 1, I or my family have never owned slaves. We came to the United States from Ireland long after slavery had been abolished. No. 2, I think the apology has already been given in the way of 500,000 dead American soldiers in the Union Army who made it clear that they didn't approve of slavery and fought against it."

"There is no need for an apology; there is a need for people to come together and work for the general welfare of the nation," he said. "The president, I believe, will pretty soon appoint a czar of apology."

It’s a pretty bombastic statement if you ask me.  Yes, I too am not part of a family that owned slaves, but what is wrong with the government issuing an apology for something that was indeed backed by the government?  I actually think it is a fantastic idea to appoint a czar of apology.  How great would it be to see people in leadership who knew when they were wrong and an office dedicated to reconciliation and making amends?  I for one would be a huge fan of that.

I want people to feel at home and as a nation birthed out of immigration, there needs to be more ways to be intentional about making paths (not labyrinths) for people to be citizens in this country.  Last night my yoga instructor said, “There needs to be freedom in stability and stability in freedom.” And instantly my mind started pondering this idea even though she was talking about warrior pose.  When we become so “stable” that we lose our freedom to move and breathe, that’s just it, we have lost our freedom.  Freedom to think, freedom to make choices, and freedom period. Likewise, when our freedom is so loose that there are no structures in place or guidelines, stability is not stable. When either side takes over, as was the case with the Japanese internment camps and slavery – both were taking freedom out of consideration for the sake of stability – people were hurt and people need apologies.

That’s why I want to yell at this guy who said that because when do we get to a point in our nation or even as humans when we’re too good to apologize?  We might not have had a direct role in slavery, but we live in a nation where some people who have been here longer than us still don’t feel like it’s home and when our government issues an apology for their part in it, I will stand behind that.  That’s good leadership.  I wish the government apologized quicker than 200 years or even 45 years for the things they are doing now.  We need to continually be looking at our freedom and our stability and not assume that one is more important than the other and make amends when one gets out of whack.

Just like looking for the bread this morning, even if my husband’s intentions were just that, unintentional, he still apologized.  He didn’t get snarky and say, “Well suck it up, I needed the bread. Let’s just work together to come up with a solution and move forward.”  That wouldn’t have even acknowledged what truly happened. When we have become a people that don’t apologize, I wonder what kind of people we are becoming.

Quote from: July 17, 2009  cnn.com : Obama on slavery: 'Capacity for cruelty still exists' By, Wayne Drash