To the Editor:
I was in Skidompha looking for a DVD and found myself picking up “Roots,” the 1977 series based on the book by Alex Haley, which I never saw. It seemed relevant given the upcoming events of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Inauguration Day.
I watched back-to-back episodes over the course of several nights, my eyes brimming with tears throughout much of it. Appalling and heart-warming at the same time, it chronicles the life of Kunta Kinte, the son of an African warrior, captured by slave traders in the 1700s, and follows his progeny through the sorrows and triumphs of life as a slave in America. You cannot watch this series without feeling an unbearable sense of compassion and admiration for the fortitude of the early blacks in America.
In addition to all the hoopla surrounding the historic inauguration of our country’s first black president, watch this series to see just how far we have evolved, as a country and as individuals, both black and white. Watch it, also, to recognize where prejudice and inequality still lurk in our midst.
Natasha Salvo, Damariscotta
