Posted on 05/09/2006 10:02:08 PM PDT by peggybac
John Conyers: U.S. Owes Slavery Reparations
The left wing Democrat who will become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee if his party wins back Congress in November wants to hold full blown congressional hearings on whether the government should pay African Americans reparations for slavery.
Michigan Rep. John Conyers has attracted attention in recent months for his House resolution calling for an impeachment investigation against President Bush.
But another Conyers cause-celeb is reparations, which he's been advocating since 1989, when he first introduced legislation to establish what he calls, "The Commission to Study Reparations Proposals for African American Act." ( H.R. 40)
In a press release posted to his official congressional web site, Conyers explains how he intends to handle the hot-button issue.
"My bill does four things:
• It acknowledges the fundamental injustice and inhumanity of slavery.
• It establishes a commission to study slavery, its subsequent racial and economic discrimination against freed slaves.
• It studies the impact of those forces on today's living African Americans.
• The commission would then make recommendations to Congress on appropriate remedies to redress the harm inflicted on living African Americans."
Conyers says:
"I chose the number of the bill, 40, as a symbol of the forty acres and a mule that the United States initially promised freed slaves. This unfulfilled promise and the serious devastation that slavery had on African-American lives has never been officially recognized by the United States Government . . . " He goes on:
"Just as we've discussed the Holocaust, and Japanese interment camps, and to some extent the devastation that the colonists inflicted upon the Indians, we must talk about slavery and its continued effects."
Though Conyers reintroduces his reparations resolution every year, would-be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has never indicated whether she'd back the controversial proposal.
Tag me for reparations and I will NEVER file another IRS return again.
Also, there is Sierra Leone. Both are failed nations with conflicts.
Its reminders like this - having Conyers head of the house judiciary, that bring me back onto the ranch.
You are right, no matter what what Republicans do I will vote for them to prevent this from happening. Thanks for the advice.
I believe we are at the point where the vote only makes people feel better about what's going on in America, but that it doesn't really matter much who we vote for. Look at the facts: Republicans hold the House, the Senate, the SCOTUS, the governorships and the White House. This tells me, clearly, that conservatives have indeed banded together and used the power of our vote to change things around. YET, we are becoming more and more liberalized and globalized every year in spite of this.
I would, however, vote for any man who has real spine and would actually come right out and say, "a vote for me is a strong vote against illegal immigration; I will deport those that are here already and I will help see to it that a wall is built on our southern border". In other words, I'd vote for a guy like Tancredo any time because it's clear he is willing to risk his political popularity for the best interests of America. But based on what I see today, the two parties are largely the same. Bush is one of the most liberal Presidents of my lifetime; I actually consider JFK to have been more 'conservative' than "W" is, and that's not saying much.
If Conyers demands reparations, than I demand reparations from Chinese, Japanese, and Ainus for oppressing Koreans. China took parts of Manchuria from us, which was rightfully our land. Also, China enslaved Koreans and invaded us throughout history going recent as the Korean War. Parts of Japan was in Korean hands, but the Japanese took it from us. The Ainus were mercernaries and later samurais and generals and they invaded Korea repeatedly up to World War II. When I will get my land and money from them.
Bull squat.
Forget the fact that most modern blacks wouldn't know what to do with the land or the mule --- The REAL promise offered blacks in America, goes far beyond 40 acers and a mule....
There is not another place on the planet where blacks have prospered as they have in America...
A war that nearly destroyed the nation, was fought partly to end slavery and to grant citizenship to slaves...
No betrayal of "the promise" to blacks is as great as the betrayal of blacks by their chosen race baiting poverty pimp leaders..
Too many blacks have remained on a plantation of their own making....looking to Government for their every need and believing the poverty pimps and folks like yourself telling them that the government broke a promise 150 years ago and that is what is responsible for "bad race relations"...
I say bull squat again..
This is the land of the free....
Blacks need to break their mental chains of victimization, hatred whitey and welfare and build a life for themselves.
Semper Fi
LOL. That's because you're reasonable and understand that much as we aren't pleased with Republicans right now, they're all we have and so we'll work within the system to get THEM to change.
Hmm, I'm sure you don't really mean that.
"I say bull squat again.."
Oh, well maybe you have another point?
"Too many blacks have remained on a plantation of their own making....looking to Government for their every need and believing the poverty pimps and folks like yourself telling them that the government broke a promise 150 years ago and that is what is responsible for "bad race relations"..."
You misunderstand me. I don't try to tell blacks any such thing. I was just trying to explain to you what blacks often tell me when I ask about such stuff. I've never tried to tell a black person what to believe or feel about these issues. But, like I said, I do agree that they have legitimate complaints about these issues, amongst others. If you don't believe that, maybe you're not as well informed on the subject as you assume.
It's my opinion that these things do represent real problems that exist between the races. And I, personally, would like to see us have better relations. So, regardless of merit, I take such opinions seriously and try to find solutions.
And by the way, VMGR-252, MAG 14 (among others). Semper Fi.
None
As there was no act that said it was illegal.
And where in the US Constitution was Congress given the power to criminalize slavery? Note that it took a Constitutional Ammendment to do that.
Bottom line: If the US Federal government can be held responsible for not outlawing slavery, then every person can be held liable for failing to come to the aid of another, whenever there was need. It is not possible to construct a logically-consistent ethical system based on any such premise.
Not 6 generations in my family. My dad was born in 1930. My grandfather was born in 1887. My great grandfather was born in 1842. My great great grandfather was born in 1809. His father was born in 1777. My great grandfather emigrated to the U.S. from Wales in 1863 and enlisted in the Union Army. He served until the end of the war in 1865.
Reparations? Right after the $5 trillion in Great Society welfare money is repaid to the government by the recipients. After that, we can pay any living persons who can prove they were slaves prior to 1865.
I was in a discussion with a black friend about reparations. I grew tired of the argument and told him to give me $200. He demanded to know why. I told him a black stole my bike when I was younger and I was to be paid back for it. Since he was demanding I pay money to him because I happen to have the same color of skin as some else who did something wrong, I wanted the same from him.
He has refused to talk to me about reparations ever since.
However, things like Conyers and other wackjobs coming back to power is too frightening.
If ANYONE has been working hard lately to worsen the racial atmosphere - it has been the lunatic black leadership as provided by Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Conyers, the NAACP, Nation of Islam, Black Panthers, etc, etc.....
I've reached the point where I'm turning a deaf ear to their constant bitching and blaming whitey for all their problems.....
I'm no longer a compassionate listener to their bitching.
If you wish to give credence or sympathy to their bitching - have at it.. Just please don't ask me to pony up any more "white guilt" money to blacks.
I have no guilt...I feel no guilt..
My family didn't get here until 1930 - and none of us ever took, sold or held slaves... In fact we were near slaves ourselves for a couple of decades.
Semper Fi
CONYERS IS with thejESSE jACKSON, AL SHARPTON self
appointed
LEADERS OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY...NO WONDER THEY ARE IN
'THE WILDERNESS WAITING FOR AN ECHO?? Jake
I enlisted in March '75. I served four years of active duty in the USMC. So I was one of the last to enlist under the Vietnam Veterans benefits package.
The contractual promise made to me regarding college benefits was for payments of about $450 a month, for 12 months a year, for a maximum of five years, for periods that I attended college full time.
I only received one year of such payments. After that, my benefits were cut every semester. By my fourth year of attending college full time, I received less than 10 cents on the dollar promised. The government got away with this because there were very few of us under this benefits package at that time, and we were hated by a majority of the population.
In fact, while in my fifth year in college, I actually received a "Thanks for donating your benefits to help balance the Budget" letter. As if I had asked to do that.
So, like a lot of people cheated by the federal govt., I'd also like to receive my reparations. And I'm not a fourth generation descendant. I'm the person that was screwed. But I doubt that Conyers, or anyone else, is going to raise that issue.
I'm just saying that former slaves in 1870 are hardly the only folks that were ever shorted by our federal govt.
I think US blacks have more of a claim to reparations than border jumpers have to amnesty. And the president I voted for, donated to, and prayed for thinks that we ought to surrender to Mexico.
Reparations? No big deal. At least we're talking about folks and citizens.
I feel your pain, I enlisted in July 1975, served eleven years,got booted out without so much as a thank you for serving as part of a budget cut, only to find out that by the time I could get into a decent college any benefits I was due towards it would run out.
Our experience is a main reason that when people tell me that they're confident that our Government will make good on their Social Security - and that they're counting on it to survive during retirement, I can only think; "well good luck"
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