I'm at work reading a magazine, a pretty reputable one here in Canada. Anyway I come to an article about young girls in Senegal. Apparenty a Canadian woman has set up an organization to try to stop some of the atrocities going on there, namely female genital mutilation, and the practice of marrying off young school aged girls, many as young as 10 years old. So I'm reading the article which tells the individual stories of young girls aged 10-12 who have endured the mutilation procedure. Anyway tears are coming to my eyes while I'm reding this and then I start to think.

WERE WE THE LUCKY ONES ?????

By we I mean those who are decesendants of African slaves in the Americas. I mean had it not been for the Trans atlantic Slave trade it is possible that I could have endured the same torture that young girls in W. Africa are enduring. We've often spoken about the atrocities of slavery, but aren't the acts these children are suffering from just as atrocious? I'm wondering if our ancestors unknowingly sacrificed their own blood so we could forgo much of what those left behind are forced to endure in the year 2005. Just a thought. What do you guys think?