I feel no guilt about slavery or any other event of the past. Unless it is an event that happened during my lifetime in which I played a direct role and in which my role involved actions that wronged another person - in which case, I have eliminated any feelings of guilt by doing whatever was in my power to make amends to those I've wronged. I still have regrets over things in my own past, but no guilt.

Feelings of responsibility, on the other hand, are a whole different ball of wax. I am white, raised in the Deep South in a family of some privilege, and I know good and well my family's station in life - and hence that into which I was born - is related directly to the status quo of the past in this country. Does that make me guilty? Hell no. Does it lay some heavy responsibility on me to do what I can to continue to fight for positive change? Hell yes.

I read the autobiography of Malcolm X my first year out of college and it completely shifted my world perspective. I was already quite active in issues of racial reconciliation at home and abroad, but had never been hit in the face with one important truth - that there is much work to be done in the white community, particularly in circles of power and influence, and no one bears responsibility for this work more than those of us who have traveled in these circles and whose voice might be heard there.

Guilt is a sympathetic emotion, but in the end, it can't hold a candle to a sense of responsibility and drive to action. I make no apologies for anyone but myself. But I hope that through my words and especially my actions, I will be able to live up to the responsibility that fate has dealt me in life and in my community.