The geneology-as-fitness-for-presidency standard is reaching new lows.
Not only do we have Mitt Romney, a practicing Mormon, with polygamous forefathers (who woulda thunk it?), and the six degrees of separation moment when we discovered that a forefather of Strom Thurmond owned a forefather of Al Sharpton, now we have a new shocker.
Genealogists have uncovered a new ingredient in the melting pot identity of Senator Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat who hopes to become the first black president. His white maternal ancestors once owned slaves.
Mr. Obama is the American-born son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya. The genealogists, led by William Addams Reitwiesner, studied the family history of Mr. Obama’s mother and determined that Mr. Obama’s great-great-great-great grandfather, George Washington Overall, owned two slaves listed in the 1850 census in Nelson County, Ky.
Mr. Obama’s great-great-great-great-great grandmother, Mary Duval, also owned two slaves, the records show.
Isn't that a pretty tenuous tie? You have to go back seven generations to find slave holders in Obama's family. Does the fact that Obama's relatives owned slaves 155 years ago have any relevance to, well, anything?
Other than a renewed interest in finding one's family skeletons before the New York Times does, I can't think of any reason for this mad scramble to find dirt on the forefathers of present day presidential candidates (and notable figures). Slavery has been outlawed for 142 years. At some point, we've got to give current people a break from the curse of it. Even the Bible had a limit on how many generations a curse lasted.
|