Most of us here are Americans. We need to recognize and remember and atone for what other members of our nation did. We need to remember that our "sweet land of liberty" has places in its history as dark and sinful as any other. Lynching, race riots, the Trail of Tears, all these and more are part of our heritage. Let us say, as Jews do when we recall the Holocaust, "Never again!"

I include myself in this, even though I did not come to live in the US until I was six. Moreover, I have opposed American military adventurism since I returned from Vietnam in 1969.