Posted on 04/10/2008 5:54:11 AM PDT by stan_sipple
Regrets would be expressed. A condemnation of racial discrimination toward African-Americans would be declared.
But no apology for slavery and its effects on the state’s African-American residents would come from the Nebraska Legislature if a resolution advanced Wednesday from the Judiciary Committee is debated and adopted by the full Legislature.
The committee debated the resolution for about an hour in the late morning and could not agree on the wording for an amended version of Sen. Dwite Pedersen’s resolution, the subject of a public hearing on Monday. A few minutes into the debate, Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers left the meeting after saying he would oppose any dilution of the resolution. *
Seeing that committee Chairman Brad Ashford and Vice Chairman Steve Lathrop were balking on the apology wording, Chambers said it was up to the white people on the committee to work it out.
“This is a situation where white people are concerned about the sensibilities of other white people. You do not care how I feel,” he said. “If (the resolution) is rejected, it’s not news to me. I’m rejected as a human being.”
The resolution was introduced after one of Pedersen’s constituents, who researched the history of slavery in territorial Nebraska, asked him to submit it to the Legislature. In the 1850s, the territory had a number of slaves, especially along the Missouri River. The state outlawed slaves in 1861, six years before it was granted statehood.
Ashford said in the committee meeting he didn’t have any problem expressing regret. He has profound regret for racial discrimination, he said. And the state should try to eradicate it.
“I don’t think it’s less caring because I want only to express regret,” he said.
The remedy, Ashford said, would be passing laws that promote fairness, equality and equal opportunity.
Lathrop said an apology is something that happens between two people as the result of one wronging the other. It’s not the role of the state to say I’m sorry, he said. But he, too, had no problem expressing regret.
Pedersen said the apology would be a tool for healing.
“The simple question I ask is, What will this hurt? Who will this hurt?”
Sen. Vickie McDonald of St. Paul offered an amendment that would allow an apology for racism, the after effects of slavery.
The committee broke for lunch and, in the afternoon, Lathrop offered an amendment that would say the Legislature expressed its profound regret for the state’s role in slavery and condemned racial discrimination in any form toward African-Americans.
The committee voted 6-0-1, with Omaha Sen. Pete Pirsch present not voting and Chambers absent.
Voting to advance the amended resolution were: Lincoln Sen. DiAnna Schimek, Pedersen, Lincoln Sen. Amanda McGill, McDonald, Lathrop and Ashford.
The resolution also encourages people in Nebraska to teach their children about the history of slavery and its effects. It expresses the intent that the resolution not be used in any type of litigation.
Pedersen said after the vote he would have loved to see the apology stay in the resolution, but he was committed to getting something to the full Legislature. If it is debated, he said, he will take the opportunity to personally apologize for slavery and its effects.
Robert “Chuck” Vestal, who researched slavery in Nebraska and asked Pedersen to introduce the resolution, said regretting that slavery happened in Nebraska was appropriate.
Lela Shanks, of Lincoln, who testified at the resolution’s hearing, said as long as the committee did not change the historical facts presented in the resolution and the acknowledgement of slavery in the state, she would be thankful for that much.
Still, she said, she taught her children when they squabbled with their siblings that they could never live long enough to say “I’m sorry,” and “I apologize” too much.
“I’m sorry that people can’t say, ‘I apologize,’” she said.
This is an affront to all those who slaved in the wheat fields under the cruel whips of Nebraska plantation owners.
Notice that they are going to ban racial discrimination against African Americans. But apparently racial discrimination against other groups will be okay.
All former slave-owners in Nebraska should be required by law to apologize profusely to any of their former slaves still living in Nebraska.
Everyone else should get a frickin’ life!
Why on earth is this happening in Nebraska of all places? People never fail to disappoint me. Yes, slavery was wrong; yes racism is wrong. But this is ridiculous. At this rate, we will be spending all our energy on apologies and never actually building up the black communities, which must come from within that community. It will not happen with apologies from white people who were born 150 years after slavery ended and most of whom do not have ancestors who owned slaves.
Im regretting every day that ancestors I never had owned slaves, but its bad enough that i am white
I want appologies from Obama, Sharpton, Jackson, etc. for balck men raping and sexually assulting white women.
Black folk supporting such an apology feel as though they are owed something by America. They are not. They have all of the same opportunities that the rest of hold dear.
If you think someone owes you something, the chances are you are failing in life; and there’s little chance that you will amount to anything worthwhile.
These people are so FREEKING PC is funny. There is no way anyone who wasn’t born prior to the civil war should have to say “I’m SORRY” for anything to do with slavery.
Ernie Chambers. One of the most racist people I’ve ever heard of.
There’s enough wrong with this kind of legislation without bringing a strawman into the mix. Try to keep the apples separate from the oranges.
There are already federal laws in place that do that, with the exception of discrimination against whites.
I don't think most blacks understand that this is the sort of thing that creates huge resentment among whites (and other colors, in my experience). I apologize when I'M the one who did wrong. Suppose you slapped someone in the face, and I said, "I'm sorry". It would be ridiculous.
What an 'apology' is meant to convey is "I'm sorry I haven't done enough to make blacks happy - please take my wallet and maybe my job." Screw that. I've never said a rude word to a black in my life, but I've been on the receiving end plenty of times. Hell will freeze over before I apologize to anyone for slavery. I'm more likely to tell someone to get on their knees and thank God their ancestors were taken as slaves to a country as good as this - that otherwise, they might be starving in Zimbabwe, or being hacked to death by their neighbors in Rwanda!
IMHO it's not meant to. It is merely the thin edge of the wedge viz. reparations.
And what about the thousands of blacks who were slave owners? Their ancestors don’t have to apologize?
Only if you’re white do you have to apologize for something your ancestors probably never did. It all makes sense. LOL
The only thing I’m sorry about is that my great uncle died fighting for the Union in the Civil War. Especially since we whites don’t get any credit for it.
Slavery was abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, December 6, 1865. Nebraska became a State in 1867.
“The simple question I ask is, What will this hurt? Who will this hurt?”
Sen. Vickie McDonald of St. Paul offered an amendment that would allow an apology for racism, the after effects of slavery.
Is Pedersen going to issue an apology for the high rates of crime and illegitmacy in the black community and the impact that these factors have on society in general?
Ernie Chambers has been a clown his entire career in Nebraska’s Unicameral.
I’m upset that Nebraska, as a Territory, failed to issue an official apology for all the Indian tribes that enslaved some white settlers! ;-)
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