Posted on 10/18/2007 9:13:32 AM PDT by freespirited
Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Wednesday the Senate should apologize for slavery and segregation, calling them “dark chapters in our history.”
McCain said he would support a planned resolution by fellow Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, who is also seeking the presidency, to apologize for racist laws, some of which ended more than a century ago.
“They were federal policies,” Brownback told the Boston Globe on Monday. “They were wrong. The only way for us to move forward . . . is at the end of the day acknowledging those, taking ownership for it, and asking for forgiveness.”
McCain agreed with Brownback’s approach.
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Spokesmen for other presidential candidates, including Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, the only top-tier black candidate, declined to comment on the planned Brownback apology. Also silent were Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican candidates Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson.
Nothing that “various states have adopted similar resolutions,” McCain emphasized that words alone cannot make amends for America's past policies of racism. He said the U.S. should “continue our efforts to make sure that all Americans have equal opportunity to take part in this great, great free-enterprise system of ours.”
The Arizona Republican pledged to “address the issues of poverty and lack of education in parts of America, including parts of South Carolina, parts of my state, that some of our Hispanic students are not getting the same quality of education we want them to.”
McCain made the remarks during a two-day swing through South Carolina, a state that effectively ended his presidential campaign in 2000 when Republicans voted instead for George W. Bush. McCain used the visit to attack Clinton for advocating taxpayer funding of a museum on the Woodstock rock concert. McCain also slammed Giuliani for fighting against the presidential line-item veto, which McCain called an essential tool for controlling federal spending.
The Constitution was both written and ratified years after the United States won independence.
An apology for slavery probably won't do much good.
But as for opening the door to more separation, this will help do that more so than dozens of government apologies for unflattering parts of American history.
Thank you John McCain for killing your own candidacy. You’ve proven that you’re likely an idiot before and you removed all doubt now.
No, the only way for us to move forward is to quit wasting your time and our money on cr*p like this.
NEVER, NEVER be sorry for wearing Brut cologne!!!! That IS the nicest smelling cologne, along with Old Spice! And, I ain't kidding!
If any senate apologies are issued it should be ONLY from the senate DEMOCRATS as a group. Theirs is the party of slavery, secession and the KKK.
STFU McLaim!
How about apologizing to us for all the babies killed by abortion? Or for what they did to Terri Schindler?
McCain has Campaign Tourettes.
Where has he been the last couple of decades?
Hey how about Hi Karate? Don’t forget English Leather and British Sterling (shaken not stirred).
Captain James T. Kirk"
You mean, "LSD", right?
What is being proposed is that a non-people, an institution, the Senate, should apologize. You can check, but the Senate does not have a 'skin color,' and neither are all the Senators of European descent.
You've actually sort of shed light on why people are getting so worked up over what should practically be a non-issue on this thread. You think that they are asking for 'white' people to apologize to 'black' people for slavery.
They aren't. They are asking for the an abstract entity, the Senate, to acknowledge that it failed a people under its authority and jurisdiction.
The same for calls for the nation to apologize. It is a recognition that the nation--which is not solely of European descent--to acknowledge it permitted something bad to happen on its watch.
As stated earlier, an apology could be almost pointless. It probably won't do much good. However, contrary to what many freepers here seem to be going into a conniption fit about, it probably won't do much evil, either. The odds of a reparations bill passing don't hinge on whether or not the government issues an apology.
It's basically an empty statement, and probably won't affect things either way for those of African or European descent. Those on either side who hate the other side won't change their opinions based on a government apology.
The Constitution Rev 2.0
The Declaration would not have been adopted without the South, and the South would not have signed off if slavery had been abolished then and there. The Federal Constitution was ten years later and many of the Founding Fathers were still around and still there. Patrick Henry too, although nobody listened to him anymore. Trade-off came back to bite a couple generations later and still hasn’t quieted.
Every big town in America already has a “apology monument” for slavery....the welfare office.
Political climates and media ventures to inquire about a further apology from various institutions a hundred and forty years past the Civil War are code word constructs meant to harden hearts, convince mascot groups of the leftists that they continue to be in a new form of slavery and made to make people feel guilty enough to grant special interests.
McCain, Nixonian to the last, constantly looks for media love and hence, latches on to such ploys as one more bid for stardom.
Don't these 100 fools have ANY work to do?
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