Actually, just as a side note.. there were many slaves who -did- come of their own free will, or even worse..were sold -by- their own people in Africa. Just one of those little historical facts that's often downplayed, or unheard of.. just as most history classes nowadays don't really fully address the whole fact that the American Civil War wasn't really based upon the distaste for the philosophy of slavery, but the fact that slavery was allowing the South to prosper and even surpass profits by Northern Industry due to the fact that they were utilizing slave labor.. the issue and objections were more economical in nature than actually based in values/morales/rights/wrongs.

I personally disagree with the idea of reparations. To put my thoughts in a nutshell, we are so far removed from the generations of slavery now that it's absurd. Most of the African-Americans that currently live in the United States have never endured hardships of slavery... and generations later, the descendants of many slaves have benefitted greatly from programs instituted upon their behalf. Practically, to try to institute a program such as would be required to provide reparations would be fiscally disastrous for our country, the money has to come from somewhere, after all... and there are the questions, the dividing points and details that would serve as the devil..what about the African-Americans who came to the country -after- the time of slavery? Given that many African American slaves' lives were not meticulously documented, or lineages, how does one -prove- without the shadow of a doubt that they -are- descended of a slave ancestor? There are just too many loopholes that would make such an effort just not feasible in my opinion.

Personally, if it's not a matter of greed, and wanting to benefit financially from the experience of others...why couldn't a simple apology extended by the government suffice? Not that there haven't been a few of those issued already.

Basically,imo, it's time to let the race thing die. We are the "melting" pot.. I have to agree with joeninpo, there's really not a ethnic group in this country who -hasn't- dealt with some kind of difficulty either tied to slavery or indentured servitude..the native American nations, the Irish, the Chinese..there are too many instances to list them all...even in Biblical times, slavery was a common institution.

Let's stop living for the past, and in selfish desire for reparations for offenses that didn't even occur in our generation, and spend that time, energy,and legal pay in trying to build the unity in our country.

My 2 cents worth here..

Dee

The countless tribes of Native Americans from Alaska to Chile were conquered fair and square just as people have been since the beginning of mankind. How they were conquered is irrelevant. Its a done deal.

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JIMMY JOE

To JimmyJoe :
"To the victor belongs the spoils." In nature, the strongest animal conquers and becomes the leader, (Alpha Male?) and has his way with the pack.
Humans are animals, also. The main difference, generally accepted, is that we have a free will, and can decide to act in opposition to nature. (Are there actually homosexual animals?)

Anyway-back on subject- The way the Europeans, (French, Spanish, British and others), fought and treated the Native Americans and Mexicans was less than "Fair and square" according to some authors. The book "The Underside of American History" opened my eyes to some pretty terrible actions by the conquering Europeans. The way it describes rape, pillage and vicious treatment of the often surprised and poorly armed or unarmed Mexicans and Native Americans of the Southwest suggests the animal nature prevailed!

So I disagree with the usual definition "Fair and Square" in those circumstances, but is Nature fair and square?

Is the human animal always "conscientious", "humane", "fair",
"compassionate", or do we revert to animalistic tendencies toward survival of the fittest during conflicts?
Should we "love our neighbor" or discriminate against him/her for skin color, hair color, size, features, etc.? Animals discriminate. Are we really more than animals?

It appears that I have strayed from the thread on Slavery Reparations. Did I? Do you think reparations are due any animal that gets conquered by another animal? Years later, should our human nature be so dominant that we ask today's animals to pay reparation to great grandchildren of other animals? Comments?
(Notice I left out religious discrimination- something that is happening as we speak in the Mid East, and will lead to WWIII. That goes in another forum in The Lounge!)

If you read about any conquering force you will get stories of rape, pillage and broken truces. Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, Ghenghis Khan, King David; all were conquerors of another people. Does Greece (Alexander) owe anthing to Iran (Alexander conquered the Persians)?

As for reparations. A tough stance to take either way. For me it comes down to the fact that no law was broken and justice eventually prevailed. Slavery has always existed and continues to this day. What is different from 2006 to 1806 is that today all nations have signed on with a UN Charter that proclaims slavery and involuntary servitude as being a crime against humanity.

The now has to have a starting point. Passing punitive laws and then making them retroactive is not constructive.

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JIMMY JOE