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.
There once was a land called Liberia...
At least illegal aliens work for their ill begoten money.
The colllateral consequences are rather interesting. Kobe Bryant gets a tax cut of about what, 10 million a year? But then Keyes would get a tax cut too. Charity begins at home. Yes, I know, the last bit was a low blow.
**Preach!**
ON THE DAY THAT JOHN CONYERS RESURRECTS THOSE 250000 DEAD FROM THE BATTLEFIELDS OF THE CIVIL WAR AND THEN BRINGS ME PROOF THAT BEING HERE IN THE US IS WORSE THAN LIVING IN AFRICA THEN I WILL CONSIDER REPARATIONS TO EVERY SLAVE LIVING TODAY IN THE US TODAY PROVIDED THEY IMMEDIATLY REMOVE TO AFRICAN LAND!
Otherwise, shut up!
Ya. But pro discrimination is in a different category than anit discrimination. Just ask SCOTUS.
Oh, gee Edith!
The day reparations are awarded is the day I stop paying taxes.
****barf****
Whatever responsibility there might be to pay "reparations" would rightfully belong to those Southern States where slavery was legal. The US Federal government had nothing to do with it--and Constitutionally, had not the power to act, one way or the other.
"Just as we've discussed the Holocaust, and Japanese interment camps..."
Interment camps?
LOL
I predict in a few short years illegal immigrants will be holding us hostage for "reparations," as well.
They will enumerate all of the "injustices" Americans have inflicted on them by forcing them to live in the shadows, work for paltry wages, and a myriad of other perceived injustices.
"I predict in a few short years illegal immigrants will be holding us hostage for "reparations," as well."
Shortly after that, there will be a legal immigrant uprising up those also looking for reparations... eesh, this could go on for a few years and get entirely too costly. Would a nice red apple do?
And the beauty of it, is that the eleven states of the old Confederacy (well maybe not Louisiana and Mississippi), can afford to pay it now, after a rather long impecunious period. Even better is that about a quarter of the bill will be paid by blacks themselves. It is a winner all around.
Are you familiar with the political issues/debates regarding reparations for former slaves that ocurred in the mid-1860's?
And, Yes, I am talking about the "40 acres and a mule" promise.
I'd love to tell you what I think of this idea, but I'd be banned from the internet. Which tells you right there that Conyers and his band of PC thugs already have a significant leg up on us. So when are we going to start fighting back in terms that are every bit as strong and unforgiving as those the thugs use?
Where Are The Turkeys, Congressman Conyers?The director of a Detroit food bank wants to know what happened to 60 turkeys — 720 pounds of frozen birds — that his charity gave to members of U.S. Rep. John Conyers’ local staff two days before Thanksgiving to give to needy people.
1/5/2005Gleaners asks if Conyers’ staff helped needy people
January 5, 2005BY JOEL THURTELL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERThe director of a Detroit food bank wants to know what happened to 60 turkeys — 720 pounds of frozen birds — that his charity gave to members of U.S. Rep. John Conyers’ local staff two days before Thanksgiving to give to needy people.
Conyers’ Detroit office promised an accounting of any turkey distribution by Dec. 27, but the Gleaners Community Food Bank had received no paperwork as of Tuesday, said the charity’s director, Agostinho Fernandes.
Fernandes said he became suspicious that the turkeys didn’t get to poor people after hearing from a friend that a federal court worker had said he was offered free turkeys from a member of Conyers’ staff.
Conyers’ press secretary Karen Morgan said Tuesday that she was told that some of Conyers’ staffers gave the turkeys to poor people whose names were provided by the state Family Independence Agency. A fax with those names, she said, was to be sent Tuesday or today to Gleaners.
Maureen Sorbet, a spokeswoman for the FIA, said Tuesday, “I spoke to the central FIA office in Wayne County, and they were unaware of the turkey situation.
“Normally, we don’t provide names” of FIA clients, Sorbet added. “Sometimes at Christmastime we might if people self-disclose. It’s remotely possible.”
By mid-afternoon Tuesday, Fernandes said he had received nothing from Conyers’ office.
“I’ve got to tell you that our mission of feeding hungry people has been violated by the people who should have been guardians of our mission,” Fernandes said.
Fernandes said Conyers staffer Elisa Grubbs signed a Gleaners invoice Nov. 23 acknowledging she picked up the turkeys on the congressman’s behalf. Fernandes sent the Free Press a copy of the invoice.
Morgan said the staffers who picked up the turkeys had promised to provide Gleaners with an accounting by Dec. 27. Morgan said she would ask Conyers to call the Free Press to answer questions about the turkeys, but he did not.
Morgan said Tuesday that she had been assured that a list of recipients exists, but added that she had not seen it.
“You can imagine how we feel,” Fernandes said. “They didn’t pay anything. This was donations to them to help the needy. We get calls from different representatives who want to put together food baskets for their needy constituents and you have faith that these people are going to bring the food to the people it’s intended to go to.”
A Conyers staff member who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal told the Free Press that Grubbs and her cousin, Conyers’ Detroit deputy chief of staff Marion Brown, along with a former Conyers aide, DeWayne Boyd, picked up the turkeys and later gave contradictory accounts of what happened to the birds.
The unnamed staff member raised concerns in a memo sent to both the FBI and House ethics committee. Conyers was the target of an informal ethics committee inquiry last year following a Free Press investigation about use of staff members during work hours for political campaigns.
Boyd, who was fired from Conyers’ Detroit office in 2002, was convicted on seven counts of fraud last month in U.S. District Court in connection with a scam he ran from Conyers’ office in 1999.
Boyd, Brown and Grubbs did not return Free Press calls.
A spokesman for the ethics committee could not be reached for comment.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined comment.
Despite many promises to explain all of this, Conyers never did. It’s pretty clear why.
Conyers and his staff stole the turkeys for themselves and their friends.
When Republicans finally internalize the fact that emotion motivates the majority of voters, not reason.
John Conyers: U.S. Owes Slavery Reparations
Polls are looking good for that to happen this year.
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