This is a flood wall.

This is not the Berlin Wall. No one has died here trying to get across this wall.

This is not the Great Wall of China. It did not take several generations of families to build it with separation and protection in mind.

This is not The Jerusalem Wailing Wall where prayers are stuffed into cracks for safe keeping; seeking speedy answers.

This is not the Iron Curtain Wall built to separate technology and money, and secret science.

This is not the Bamboo Curtain Wall grown to hide armies, arms build up and atrocities in Tibet.

This is not the Great Breach Wall between Ireland and Ireland; Protestant and Catholic.

This is not a proposed Drug Czar Wall between Texas and Mexico.

This is not The 38th Parallel Wall between Korea and Korea.

This is not the 1960’s Railroad Track Wall between Birmingham and Birmingham, and every other city in the South.

This is not a Wall about a Pink Floyd song of division and added bricks of hate without reconciliation.

This Richmond Flood Wall is not a Civil War Relic Wall.

This Richmond Flood Wall must not become miles of knick-knack shelving for the sale and barter of Civil War Memorabilia.

This is a Humanitarian Wall that homes and small family owned businesses will not flood, but rather flourish for generations.

This is an Economic Wall built to keep the water in the James River and the Money dry in Shockoe Slip and Fulton Bottom.

This is a wall built by all taxpayer's monies and designed to be played upon, walked upon, or to dance in the shadow of its height.: constructed with all purposes and intent to be a park and a safe haven for all peoples who come here to rest their bodies on the stones, the benches and the ground. The Capital City of Virginia must never lose sight of The Flood Wall’s original purpose and the community it shelters and protects from destruction.

Fulton Bottom flooded every year wiping out families again and again. They also had no insurance to re-build, but re-build they did, every year. The flooding will stop there now, and homes are being built to stay dry. This is the true meaning of shelter, a dry home that will be there next year.

The James River renews souls that she finds seated upon her edge.

Native Americans call the wide long river Grandfather River.

The ancient peoples of this land ate from this river in peace for thousands of years prior to our turning it into a blood bath of war upon our own arrival.

This city of Richmond, Virginia is memory enough in its own right of Civil War, Slavery, and long trails of blood in the ground; which have been reconstituted into the pabulum of guided tourist walking tours designed to re-awaken:

American Mothers, both black and white, lost more sons and husbands during this four year time span than in all the wars combined from 1776 to this very day. We are standing on their blood as we view Grandfather River. That blood has not nor will it ever leave this ground.

We who stand here today, no matter where we are from, must pray that the blood that we stand upon will cease the cry of Civil War. We must allow the waters of this strong river to wash this ground with a baptism unto peace.

We who truly love this city must at some point let those who died bury the dead past with all of its pain, loss and suffering. This ground beside this mighty river must once and for all rest from the continuing conjured up memories forever stirred in the cauldron of war filled to the brim with bought and sold human flesh labeled as cargo on trips of passage.

Not far from where we stand tonight there is a house that has been restored to commemorate a far sighted black woman. Maggie Walker lived in Jackson Ward and started a bank for men and women who were finding it increasingly difficult to get loans to buy housing, or obtain funds of any kind for anything. She took all inquirers at their word, not their completed paperwork , and her level of trust was the key to her success. Could we all learn from Maggie Walker and her bank? I think so. We have CitiTrust, SunTrust, FirstTrust, and UnitedTrust. Maybe it is time we had a little of Maggie Walker Trust.

Not too far from Maggie Walker’s living room bank, a lanky agile man danced his way into the heart of America. His name: Bojangles. His mama called him Bill Robinson. Make a search for his statue. Some say that it is not the best of statues, but who really cares, for it was built in the love of the man: so shut your eyes and feel of it. Touch the essence of the man it represents, for he is still radiating the vigor of the dance. Should you begin to dance while there, don’t ever stop, for you will have found the magic.

On Monument Avenue there is a new statue dedicated to education, and the sport of tennis. This statue commemorates Arthur Ash, who changed the face of Tennis in Virginia, The USA and finally the world. His entire life was a gift to children. We loved him. He earned his station in this city.

Richmond is a thriving community of people dedicated to the arts, universities, music, children, and state-of-the-art healing.

There is a hospital, formerly Richmond Community Hospital formed by the family of Richard C. Jackson, a black physician who saw a need for all peoples of little or no means to be cared for by skilled physicians in a professional setting dedicated to the healing arts. The Jackson Family has been one of the vertebrae in the backbone of Richmond Virginia for well over a hundred years. I worked with Dr. Richard A. Jackson for over fourteen years in the medical business and he carried on the traditions of his father and grandfather before him. Go see this landmark hospital and view the photos of its past.

Monday of this week in Tanzania President Clinton said to a country caught up in the blood bath of Civil War, "there can be no victor and no vanquished at the table of peace talk:" be it a new war or and an old war or a long dead in the past war: our President’s words ring true.

I would say to all of you students, truly, you are the next generation of the seekers of Truth, "Come, sit ye down by the waters of this Grandfather River, listen to the class four rapids of his continual unfolding story and reason together a future for us all." God bless and enjoy your years of learning in this our city. She has welcomed this Southwest Cowgirl, and she will welcome you.