I think that Governor Northam could have turned this unwanted moment into something quite useful: the constructive conversation about white racism that we need.
Northam could have claimed himself to be representative of his culture back in the years that picture was taken.
“It was a strong force in the culture – this attitude of whites in my time and place toward blacks -- and I was not generally one who fought against my culture. (I even went to VMI.)
"So I carried that with me, that piece of white Virginia that had built itself on slavery, that enforced segregation and forbade intermarriage and kept blacks down by one means and another up through the resistance to integration.
"The fact that I can imagine that I could have been in such a picture is proof that I partook of a racism that white young men like me had been marinated in.
"But I’ve had thirty-five years since then to become a different kind of Virginia white man.
"I can see that I came into adulthood with a white attitude that fails to see blacks and their situation with a sympathetic attitude. How else to imagine the KKK, that terrorized generations of blacks to keep them "in their place," as any kind of joke?
"But I have experienced a transformation when I began to be willing to own up to the wrongs that whites have inflicted upon blacks. To understand what that KKK figure signifies. And all the other things.
"One piece of a good future has got to be the recognition that -– especially in some parts of the nation, especially in certain stretches of time – white people have inflicted great injury on black people. Own that history in order to extend the sympathy that Christian teaching calls for: Love thy neighbor as thyself.
"My background helps motivate me to use my leadership role to heal the racial divides. The transformation that I've experienced gives me a chance -- thanks to the attention this ugly picture from the past is bringing to the issue of white racism -- to try to lead the way away from racism and toward a Virginia in which black people and white people can work together to make a better Virginia.
"That's how this racially important drama of the picture creates an important opportunity.
"I'd like to appeal to the people in America who are supporting racism in any of its forms -- including supporting a President Trump who continually turns race against race -- to reject that part of our heritage, that callous and sometimes cruel racism that's been part of our culture.
"How I was on this issues 35 years ago is not OK. And how racism is being promoted from the bully pulpit of the Presidency is not OK either.
"We need to join together in condemning the kind of cruelty that expressed itself in Trump's deliberate misreading of the message of the kneeling football players.
"And we should accept the lack of sympathy shown by some part of White America to the whole "Black Lives Matter" movement. Even after we'd seen in video a whole series of ugly episodes of the unjustified police killings of black men.
"So we need to talk through these issues of how whites relate to blacks. There’s work to be done.
"I am determined to use my power to counter the racism we get from Donald Trump, and the racism that we get from a Republican Party here in Virginia that nominated Corey Stewart to run for the U.S. Senate last November.
"The Party of Lincoln has become a launching pad for racist politicians.
"I invite my fellow whites to reject utterly the hate-mongering from the top, and to side with building the caring and harmonious society we all want. (Or would want if our spirit was in the right place when it came to race relations.)
"What kind of conversation on race would serve us best? How should racist feelings be dealt with? What kinds of healing are possible?
"What kind of conversation would do the most to weaken the power of racism and fortify the power of harmony and cooperation?"
Maybe something like that would have served to give Northam the moral authority the forfeiture of which has mandated that he resign.
Or maybe he'd still have to resign, but he'd have gone out with some words worth putting into the national conversation about race, and struck a blow in the battle now ongoing over the soul of America.