No one disputes that. No decent human thinks it’s okay. But we can’t change the facts of the case by reliving it day in and day out three hundred years later. Lots of people made choices that were the best available to them at the time. Let them rest. There’s plenty to do right now.

I wrote a piece last month, “If someone else can say it better, let them…,” that Medium didn’t curate probably because the premise is not good for their business model, given that it depends on lots of people — generally young people — writing pieces about nonsense and other young people clapping for it. My premise is that most of what writers say when they are just trying to generate clicks has been said better by someone else, or they write about things so rarified or trivial that it should really be limited to their diaries or to therapy.

But you can really write. And you talk about things that warrant being talked about. But you don’t make the connection as to why the facts on the ground three hundred years ago matter now in real people’s lives. You won’t change Tom Jefferson and you will never really know his logic for his choices. And frankly, it doesn’t matter. Sally Hemmings took care of her family, full stop.

Right here and now there’s a critical need for justice. How does relitigating this help achieve that?