Century Trilogy 03 – Edge of Eternity

Time’s glory is to calm contending kings, To unmask falsehood and bring truth to light, To stamp the seal of time in aged things, To wake the morn and sentinel the night, To wrong the wronger till he render right, To ruinate proud buildings with thy hours And smear with dust their glittering golden towers. Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrece

When George was young, ‘black’ was a vulgar term, ‘colored’ was more dainty, and ‘Negro’ was the polite word, used by the liberal New York Times, always with a capital letter, like ‘Jew’. Now ‘Negro’ was considered condescending and ‘coloured’ evasive, and everyone talked about black people, the black community, black pride, and even black power. Black is beautiful, they said. George was not sure how much difference the words made.

We were just two boys. I escaped because I had to. He shot me because he had to. It’s the Wall that is evil