Posted on 07/07/2005 6:54:48 PM PDT by Land_of_Lincoln_John
I don't know what it will take for the folks in control of this country to understand that reparations for slavery is going to happen. I can't say when it is going to happen, but it will. Despite legal setbacks, black conservatives and David Horowitz, reparations is the best way to build a bridge across our great divide. Otherwise, African Americans and Caucasians will just keep sniping away at each other.
Even kids get tired of bickering.
Yet, a sincere apology is a hard thing for most of us. When we've wronged someone, I mean really shamefully wronged them in a way that you wouldn't want anyone to know about, saying "I'm sorry" can get stuck in your throat.
That's why reparations has been a hairball in America's throat for a century.
It seemed that U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle had the same problem when he issued his opinion dismissing a lawsuit filed by slave descendants seeking reparations from corporations that benefitted from slave labor.
Norgle acknowledged slavery caused "tremendous suffering and ineliminable scars." But he ruled attempts to bring claims "over a century old are barred by the applicable statutes of limitations."
Obviously, he knows his reasoning places an unrealistically high barrier for slave descendants -- just as everyone knows slavery was a "malignant impact, in body and spirit," as Norgle pointed out.
We know what would have happened had the sons and daughters of ex-slaves tried to get their day in a Mississippi or Alabama or Virginia court. They would have been beaten by angry mobs. And if they had persisted in protesting, they would have been lynched. And their sons and their daughters would have likely suffered the same fate.
But Norgle ignores this violent history against African Americans when he says that plaintiffs in this suit pleaded "vague factual generalities [and] chronicling the social and economic injustices that have befallen African-Americans due to slavery."
All suffering not the same
In his conclusion, he devotes a few lines to condemning slavery and takes paragraphs to praise efforts made to end slavery, without ever mentioning that the Civil War itself was fought to prevent the spread of slavery -- not to end it.
In fact, Norgle goes on and on about the war, pointing out that approximately 620,000 people died (he forgot some of them were black people), and that 360,000 were Union troops.
"Union soldiers, sailors and marines gave their lives on bloody battlefields and the sea to maintain one sovereign nation in which slavery would be eradicated," Norgle wrote. "The impact of this struggle on the families of the wounded and the dead is immeasurable and lasting."
The impact of the war on the Union was "significant," Norgle said, reminding the plaintiffs that the "enslavers" also sustained great personal and economic loss.
It must have taken a lot of self-control to keep the slave descendants from reacting. I have only a vague knowledge of my slave roots. But to know your slave ancestor's name, and to know details about his or her life makes them more than dry bones.
In the end, Norgle sounds like reparations aren't needed.
The "sensitive ear has heard the collective 'thank you' from those who were freed," he wrote, as well as hearing the "historic apologies in words and deeds from persons of good will for the evils of slavery."
No wonder Conrad Worrill, chairman of the National Black United Front, denounced Norgle as "just a liar."
Sets stage for serious dialogue
Too many slaves were lost before they ever reached America. Too many were maimed. Too many were killed before the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. And if they survived the horrors of slavery, too many ex-slaves didn't have a thing to pass on to their children -- not even their own names.
The collective "thank-you" for black freedom can be found in a Negro spiritual, "Free at las', free at las', I thank God I'm free at las.' "
Long after these ex-slaves were dead, their descendants were still enduring the brunt of the ugliest of human behavior: racial hatred. After slavery ended, too many whites grabbed sheets and took sport in lynching black people just because they could. And too many whites used intimidation and violence to steal black land for the statutes of limitations to be an issue.
Although Norgle threw out the complaint, this lawsuit has given the reparations movement a huge boost. Along with local ordinances -- like the one in Chicago that requires corporations doing business with the city to research their ties to slavery -- the reparations lawsuit has forced the courts to take this issue seriously.
More important, Norgle points out reparations is a matter that should be left with the president and Congress.
That's the only point where Norgle and I agree.
Given the country is enmeshed in another war, President Bush should have at least coughed up the nation's apology for slavery by now.
Wow, what a wonderful idea. Build a bridge by pointing a gun at one group, robbing them, and handing the money to another group... none of which were alive when the offenses were committed.
I wonder which group I'll be in?
Um, what about welfare? Food stamps? Can we deduct those amounts from our reparations payments?
Tell ya what. I'll agree to pay reparations. Here's the deal.
I'll give every native-born black person in America $1 million. In addition, I'll give the same people an additional $1 million for every year that they themselves were slave.
So, if you qualify for being a) black and b) a slave for 12 years, for example, you would receive $13 million.
So far, so good.
I will then deduct the costs of the following:
*The Civil War
*Prisons
*Schools
*Affirmative Action
*Public Housing
*Busing
*Hospitals
*Public Transportation
*Gerrymandered Congressional Districts
*Title IX
*The Welfare State
*Food Stamps
*School Breakfasts and Lunches
*Head Start
*The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department
*The EEOC
*Every Civil Rights lawsuit since Dred Scott
*Pain and Suffering for Jesse, Rev Al, OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson and Maxine Waters
*Midnight Basketball
*Crack
*Gang-related Crime
*Gangsta rap-related crime
*Riot-related damages to Detroit, Newark, Los Angeles, New York and any other city with more than 50,000 people where such activities took place.
*Special,one-time "Future Grievance Fee" (+)
(+) this one-time fee is to be pooled to pay for the inevitable lawsuits, protests, etc, that will be lodged when the vast majority of recipients will do something totally against their self-interest with their new found wealth --- like squander it --- and spawn 17 ABC/NBC/CBS/CNN/MSNBC specials on the plight of the unfortunate.
In return, the subject or reparations is to be dropped and the case considered closed, vis-a-vis the historical wrongs of slavery. We agree that the 14th Amendment is in full force (both ways) and that no other lawsuits, grievances, protests, demonstrations, etc. will be had on this subject.
Do I have any takers?
(Posted this yesterday on the other reparations thread)
Let me see...social security is going broke, medcare is probably already broke, the US Govt is running huge deficits as it is, we have a WOT, corporations are defaulting on their pensions (and the taxpayers must pick up the tab), we have illegals streaming across the border & straining social services, Bono wants us to contribute 0.7% of GDP for foreign aid (and what Bono wants, Bono gets) and on top of all this (and more), America is supposed to pay trillions in reparations to the Black community?
The day that happens is the day I convert my nest egg to gold, buy a truckload of ammo, move to my mountain cabin and stop paying taxes. You want $$, come and get it!
Assessing "collective guilt", or "collective justice", less the customary 40% attorneys fee, has nothing to do with "building a bridge".
To say nothing of the fact that without the facilitating by various arab nations of the time (and now as well!) there would have been NO slave trade to begin with.
WHere are the articles requesting reparations and apologies from those folks? I suggest the author of this latest hit piece (it all comes down to President Bush's failures and shortcomings, you know) research the subject more thoroughly and write an article about the background and the facilitators of the slave trade in those times.
In fact, most people who paid any attention at all, know that African tribes sold their own people to the Arabs who in turn sold them in various countries, including the southern United States. Shouldn't reparations be paid by those tribes who committed atrocities against their own people?
The entire subject makes me sick. It's a joke and I find it hard to believe that people are still writing about it as tho there is any sense to it.
Karl Rove is at the root of it all. We all know how diabolical he can be.
Yes, you should go down to the border near Nogales and fleece the illegals as they come across.
Similar to Lincoln's colonization plan.
They shoulda taken him up on the offer.
By the way Slavery still exists in East Africa. When is someone going to do anything about that???????????
Whose gonna pay for the lost assets of the slave holders?
This article, and all the others like it, are merely setting the stage for what is to come from the hands of several interested parties: trial lawyers, now that they've gorged themselves of the tobacco settlements of a gang of state AGs, black race-hustlers and their legions of duped followers, large corporations, and leftists in and out of government. It's now at the stage where gay marriage was a decade ago.
As I understand it from some lawyers I've talked to about this (who are oppposed to it), the scam is going to happen like this:
1. Set the stage with plenty of articles, broadcast news stories, city-council resolutions, letters to the editor, rent-a-mobs in local meetings, etc. The idea is to soften up any opposition so that in time, anyone who openly opposes the idea will be seen as an extremist - and ultimately get smeared as a racist.
2. Bring a series of lawsuits against large corporations whose corporate ancestors might have been involved in some way with either the slave trade itself, or some other aspect of slavery (like insuring slaveowners against escapes, etc.). The corporate response, which we've already seen (Wachovia, just last week) will be to grovel to the hustlers and promise even more racial preferences, which they already are firm believers in. The first suit has already been filed. Those filing it know that they've next to no change of winning. That's not the point. It's to wear down the opposition over time. Corporations don't like spending lots of money in court - it's expensive. The leftists who run law schools, and control vast amounts of foundation wealth have money to burn endlessly in dragging the issue through court.
3. Once the corporations cave - it's cheaper to settle up than to die the death of a thousand cuts, after all - they will run to the politicians on their payroll for a bailout courtesy of the taxpayer, which will be paid primarily to the law firms and the race-hustlers. The drones who follow the race-hustlers will get some sort of small payment, but mostly promises of permanently enshrined racial preferences in hiring, promotion, educational opportunities, etc.
Unless there is major sea-change in this country among the majority population, this will take place in some form in about ten to fifteen years. You can count on it. There's just too much money to be leached by the swarms of parasites.
There's your reparations.
hmmm...sounds like they should be going after the natives in Africa who sold their ancestors into slavery.
i would bet almost anything that reparations will be paid.
there is too much money to be made by big corporations from this for it not to happen.
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