Posted on 03/27/2002 3:51:29 AM PST by KeithFL
They better be careful...God forbid they win this case, or someone else wins a reparations case. As a taxpayer who is tired of being gouged to support various and sundry do-nothings...if people receive reparations payments, their ride on the gravy train is over!
With a reparations settlement in hand...show me why affirmative action, aid to dependent children, public housing, welfare, etc are any longer required.
Any taxpayers out there? We need to file suit for the TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS spent on welfare for blacks. I think we deserve repayment.
You know, that's almost a convincing argument to lose the court case. Think about it -- if reparations are paid, then the pain would be experienced now. All of the liberal social programs should immediately be abolished, which then would enable the government to further reduce our tax burden and take the pressure off of our children to support the impending implosions of Social Security and Medicaid.
Hmmmmm. I still can't bring myself to thinking that this reparations issue is anything but a horrible stupid idea though.
5.56mm
But I believe Keyes, Sowell and Williams would oppose calls for reparations.
The modern descendants of slaves brought here in chains in admittedly miserable, soul-gutting conditions who are now calling for reparations need to remember a few things:
They should not only be glad to be in America, they should be glad to be ANYWHERE !
Had that NOT happened, the blood of their ancestors would have run into the earth over there several centuries ago and these modern day would-be "plaintiffs" would not even exist.
And should the great-great-great grandchildren of the approximately 3,000 SLAVE OWNING BLACK plantation owners in this country also be subject to PAYING these reparations?
If so, how do we find THEM?
Robert Hitt Neill tells of attending a Tennessee Mountain Writers Conference years ago with several other authors. Among them was Alex Hailey, celebrated author of Roots. Watching a TV news show, a group of them watched a demonstration in a Southern state against the Rebel flag incorporated into that states flag. The very next report covered a famine in Africa. Graphic images showed dead bodies, starving children with distended tummies and runny noses and dying people covered with flies, too weak to brush them away.
Mr. Hailey intoned in a low, serious voice:
Every time an American black sees a story like that, they should find a Confederate flag and kiss it. He then pointed to the TV screen and continued, Because these would be me and my descendants, except for American slavery. I thank God that my family and I are here instead of there.
And how about the WHITES and ASIANS who have slavery in their backgrounds?
Next problem!
I have yet to hear anyone, other than a fanatic, argue this point. Civil War II?
Here's my suggestion; offer a "settlement" of a dollar amount that would be calculated at the prevailing labor rate at the time that slavery was legal in our country (say 1835). The total figure then could be paid out in a lump sum, in currency that was the legal tender at that point in time. Naturally, their attorney's fees would be counted as part of that settlement and would be included.
They will spend every last penny in our economy and will refuse to ever go back to paying taxes when the 50 years are up.
They were reduced to humiliation, deloused and given rough physicals. They were handed their walking papers and to survive, most of them found their way to the Steel Mills of Pittsburg, carrying buckets of water to the men working the furnaces. They worked like slaves just to live in this country.
But they made a life for themselves, and some even did very well. I thank them for giving me the chance to be born and live in this great country, or else I might be living in some tiny town in Italy right now, picking grapes.
If some of our African American friends think they would have been better off had their ancestors never left Africa, I invite them to go home again. They'll be back.
sw
The same philosophy does not apply when it come to the EPA if you look at the GE/Hudson River case.
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