                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 15, 1990                   TAG: 9003152552
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

WHEN IS TIME RIGHT? ANSWER IS ELUSIVE

"FORGET the past" caught my attention as if on hearing something heard before. "Forget the past? Now I remember!" Not an equation, but similar, such as: "It's not time yet! The time is not right!"

Such tip-of-the-tongue answers were readily given regarding racial subjects in America's past. If the question was asked, "When is the time right?" then came a stumble or no answer at all.

African government authorities are now appealing to the abused, oppressed, rejected, dislocated natives of the very soil itself: Forget the past; forget the tragic sickness of these inhuman acts; throw out your history, it doesn't matter. But mainly let us, the authors of your past, decide your future.

Tragic? Yes, as well as sick beyond expression.\ EMORY BURKS\ ROANOKE

by CNB