Posted on 04/16/2008 8:21:38 AM PDT by stan_sipple
Nebraska will express no regrets about slavery this legislative session.
Sen. Dwite Pedersen of Elkhorn took a point of personal privilege Tuesday afternoon to tell senators he would withdraw a resolution that would have expressed regret — not an apology — for slavery in the Nebraska territory and condemned racial discrimination in any form toward African Americans.
“I do not do it with anger, without thought or without hurt,” Pedersen said.
The Judiciary Committee’s taking the word “apology” from the resolution has weighed heavily on him the past four days, he said.
“I cannot take up the time of the Legislature for something I cannot personally support,” he said.
The resolution was to have been discussed and voted upon Wednesday by the Legislature.
Pedersen introduced a resolution late in the session that called for an expression of regret to those who were enslaved and an apology for wrongs inflicted by slavery and its aftereffects in Nebraska.
The resolution also encouraged Nebraskans to teach their children about the history of slavery and its effects so such tragedies would be neither forgotten nor repeated.
When the Judiciary Committee discussed the resolution last week to decide whether to send it to the full Legislature, the committee voted to take out the apology and leave only an expression of regret and condemnation of racism.
Committee Chairman Brad Ashford and Vice Chairman Steve Lathrop, both of Omaha, argued against the apology.
Ashford said it would be more appropriate to pass laws that promote fairness, equality and equal opportunity.
Lathrop said it was not the role of the state to say “I’m sorry.”
After Pedersen withdrew the resolution, Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers also took a point of personal privilege to support Pedersen’s decision. To present the resolution in a watered down form would be “a trivialization of a very serious, serious matter,” he said.
Six state legislatures have passed resolutions similar to Pedersen’s, with apologies, he said. Other countries, including German and Australia, have apologized for wrongs committed against groups of people there.
“All that has been shown by this exercise is the depth and breadth of racism in this state,” Chambers said.
He and others still bear the psychological scars of what slavery did to black people, he said, including the destruction of families and self-belief, and the harm to religions, culture and traditions.
“To be owned and treated like animals and bred and sold like animals is something, obviously, which my colleagues cannot understand,” he said.
He appreciated that Pedersen made the resolution a moral principle, he said, and that he would not compromise.
Ashford said withdrawing the resolution was probably best.
“It’s a complex issue,” he said. “It’s not a matter we should be taking up in the last few days of the session.”
Leola Bullock, a Lincoln civil rights and social justice advocate, said she had not been satisfied with the changes to the resolution by the Judiciary Committee.
Leaders of the state, she said, have shown an unwillingness to stand up for all Nebraskans.
Attorney General Jon Bruning’s unwillingness to support the requests of the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission, and Gov. Dave Heineman’s and Bruning’s sponsorship of a bill that would have taken away in-state college tuition from undocumented immigrants who attend high school in Nebraska show they weren’t working for all people in the state, she said.
“I reluctantly say that sounds racist to me,” Bullock said. “Nebraska should be better than that.”
All Nebraskans are not white, she said. There are many people of color who should be recognized, too.
“It’s really too bad,” she said. “I feel our state leaders have let us down.”
“He and others still bear the psychological scars of what slavery did to black people, he said, including the destruction of families and self-belief, and the harm to religions, culture and traditions.”
So it took a hundred years after slavery for that to kick in? Replace “slavery” with “liberalism” and then the paragraph is accurate.
“He and others still bear the psychological scars of what slavery did to black people, he said.”
Bullsh*t. Shut the f*ck up, and get out of my face.
What does Nebraska have to apologize for wrt slavery? It was never a slave state.
The selling of people surely wasn't right BUT it was the crude beginning. They came as slaves but future generations would be free.
They endured injustices..as many other immigrants did.
My in laws were Italian. My father in law had the family name changed...and this was Rochester, NY...1940.
*sigh* no one involved is alive so why is this even a topic of discussion???
They are wasting time with petty crap like this???
Again we must appease the “victim” crowd.
Stan,
Exactly!!! In my not so humble opinion I think if state govts apologized a million times, certain people would still be dissatisfied. This reparations garbage has to go. If we had slavery in this country let’s say only 50 years ago (just throwing out a number) then maybe I’d be a little more sympathetic to the idea of reparations. But no one alive or their parents has been a slave in the USA. It’s just a tactic to prop up the victim status of a group of folks.
I get sick and tired of hearing this BS that I had not one damn thing to do with. They can shove that slave crap.
I'm tired of this garbage. No one in this nation has ever legally owned a slave. Also, we've been paying 'reparations' since the 60's.
I'd like to know when we'll be forgiven for the sins of our forefathers
However, under President Hussein, I'm sure we'll have a 'whitey tax' to pay all of these reparations.
Please tell me he didn't have it changed to "Sacajaweau".
At the hands of poverty pimps like Jackson, Sharpton, and Quannell X, MLK’s “dream” has become a nightmare.
Correct Nebraska not only wasn’t a slave state it was for all intents & purposes Indian territory.
13 slaves in 1855. 10 in 1860. All owned by outsiders moving into the territory. Slavery officially abolished in The Nebraska Territory in 1861. 6 years prior to becoming a State. Nothing to apologize for.
I guess these people never heard of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Such a waste of the Unicameral’s time and energy for a non-issue in this State.
Slavery was introduced to this continent, not by Americans, but by the British government and its subjects. A new government was later formed here and was enlightened enough to rid itself of slavery at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and devastation to its own economy and infrastructure.
Again, this government and these States did not invent slavery, but took the steps to eradicate it from our shores.
Barf alert would have been helpful.
Apparently there were a total of around 20 slaves in Nebraska and only prior to Nebraska becoming a state. The fact that our legislature has wasted all of this time and debate on this issue is just embarrassing.
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