Taking time to sit with voice from past

By Dan Hurley Post columnist Visiting certain spots in Greater Cincinnati helps me think in fresh ways. One of those spots is the park bench partially occupied by a statue of James Bradley along Riverside Drive in Covington. Once or twice a year I find myself sitting with Brad-ley contemplating whether or not I am willing to risk looking at the world through someone else's eyes. The bronze statue of Bradley sits on a bench with an open Bible in his hands and the Ohio River stretching out before him. Born in Africa, James Bradley was enslaved and brought to America. As a young adult, he earned enough money to purchase his freedom, and found his way to Cincinnati, where he enrolled at Lane Seminary in Walnut Hills. Here, Bradley found himself in the center of a debate that would soon engulf the North and frighten the South. For 18 nights in February 1834, the students debated the question, "Ought the people of the Slaveholding States to abolish Slavery immediately?" On the one side stood those who supported the traditional "colonization" position that slavery could only be ended gradually, and that all freed slaves had to be colonized back to Africa. The gradualism inherent in their stance guaranteed that slavery would never end. Full Story: http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060224/LIFE/602240379/1005