As echoes of “Swing Lo, Sweet Chariot” still ring in my ears, and my feet still sing the blues from 4 1/2 hours of standing on asphalt, I'm reliving some of the magic and miscues of Monday night, when Cincinnati broke ground on its National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

        The sweetest and most gratifying moment, by far, was at the end of the program, when 25 children with tiny, battery-powered candles crooned, “This Little Light of Mine.”

        Nearly everyone in the 14,000-member audience joined in and kept singing as a 700-voice choir progressed to other spirituals. I don't know how many verses of “We Who Believe in Freedom Will Not Rest” I croaked out before I finally gave it a rest.
       

Building block

        It was rare, a self-affirming moment.

        Such a large crowd of various races gathered to commemorate this part of black history, really American history, that I couldn't help but pray that the rest of Cincinnati was watching.

        Later I learned a cable station aired it live, but not everyone in the Tristate could see it.

        Cincinnatians need this kind of reassurance to remind us we can get along and even enjoy each other's company. We ought to do it more often and soon.

        Even the dozen or so boycotters, who trailed through the crowd with signs, one with the word “Slave” written on her back, failed to mar the moment.

        The politicians, of course, tried harder.

        No fewer than 10 political figures tried trumping each other at the microphone with windy speeches, some resorting to blatant back-patting despite minimal prior involvement with the Freedom Center.

        At one point Ohio Senate President Richard Finan took the microphone from Sen. Mark Mallory, even though Mr. Mallory had just been introduced, and claimed he should speak first because he is older.

        As I thought about how the conservative representative from Evendale was one of the chief surgeons gutting some of my favorite social programs, suddenly I lost that kumbayah feeling.

        I wasn't the only one. Nancy Snowden Floyd, a choir member and former vice mayor of Glendale, joked: “Somebody needs to send them politicians a note saying, "The more you talk the fewer votes you'll get.'”

        But the luminaries of the evening — storied boxing great Muhammad Ali and first lady Laura Bush — still managed to shine, although Mr. Ali's symbolic lighting of the flame would have benefited from real fire, not the brightly colored fabric trailing cartoon-like into the night breeze.
       

Real heroes

        Mrs. Bush reminded the crowd of what mattered.

        The real underground railroad — that informal network of homes and passages that slaves traveled to get to northern “free states” — made heroes of the numerous “conductors,” whites and blacks, who risked life and livelihood to help them.

        That, she said, is proof “that when we are called upon to do what's right, we will choose what is right.”

        I hope Mrs. Bush is right.

        The Freedom Center should embody such noble and upright impulses.

        So should Cincinnati, which has shown the world its racial dysfunction.

        Let's hope that when we celebrate the center's grand opening, expected in 2004, we'll keep history in the spotlight, honoring the thousands of escaped slaves and their rescuers.

        We owe them much more than just pomp and politicking.

        Call Denise Smith Amos at 768-8395, or e-mail damos@enquirer.com.

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