To Barak Obama,
President of the United States,
The White House, Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. President,

I propose the creation of a national monument to the memory of the thousands of American men, women and children who have fallen victim to the passion of mob rule and suffered the long dark days of lynching, genocide and other atrocities that have stained our great history, those who suffered our shameful episodes hatred, racism, exclusion and other forms of irrational fear and abuse.

I believe, Mr. President, it would be fitting in these early years of the new millennium, that we begin by putting behind us this grim legacy of an age when people succumbed to such expressions of intolerance and violent policy as well as offering some comfort and closure for those whose ancestors suffered these barbaric injustices. I think we can only do so if we forthrightly acknowledge the victims and their families of these cruel episodes of shame, many of whom will forever remain nameless.,. Lynching and other expressions of racial hatred is a wound which still cries to be healed. For that reason I propose our government help us do so by building a fitting national monument and grounds that will at last give these invisible groups a visible sign of acknowledgement and a place where their memory may come home to rest and where all Americans may go to honor them.

Mr. President, we all need closure on these sad chapters of American history. I think this monument to the victims of lynching and other cruelties will be a good way to provide that and to affirm that we are, indeed, one nation.

--------------------

Sculpture: Isamu Noguchi, "Lynched Man", 1934

.