Don Bissett: Rock bottom

I am an eighth-generation descendant of a Moore County plantation owner. My great-great-great uncle was a member of the celebrated 26th North Carolina and was killed in the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble charge at Gettysburg. My son is named Lee and not named for Spike Lee.

My reading list is heavy with books relating to the War Between the States. I have long jested that although the shooting stopped in 1865, the war was never lost until we air-conditioned the South and were again invaded from the North.

In short, I am a Southerner through and through but most importantly am a member of the human race. Like the whole country across the political and racial spectrums, I am horrified and grieving over the mass murder in Charleston.

If we as a nation continue to wonder where rock bottom is, this must be it. I pray for the families of the murdered, the traumatized, the members of that beautiful church I admired at first sight years ago and the entire city of Charleston.

This story was originally published June 19, 2015 at 5:18 PM with the headline "Don Bissett: Rock bottom."