There is no question that slavery and what was done to both Native Americans and Blacks starting with the discovery of what is now the United States and continuing through the Civil War was a terrible injustice. It is incredibly easy to sympathize with these peoples and feel sorry for them. Without splitting any hairs ... slavery was bad.
As if this was still an open question, both the House and Senate have passed resolutions apologizing for slavery. Whew, I can't tell you how much better I feel now that has been cleared up. But there is a huge difference in feeling sorry about these events and taking responsibility for them and this is the scary part of the legislation that is making its way through Congress.
Taking a quick look around the house .... Nope, no slaves. Looking at the family tree and my ancestors ..... Nope, no slaves. Looking around the country just to see where we stand .... Nope, no slaves, former slaves, or people that owned slaves. Did you get that? We haven't had slavery in this country for something like 144 years. Nearly a century and half.
I'm not sure why we feel the need to apply the morality of today to events that happened a century and a half ago but hopefully now that we've passed some feel good legislation we can move on to more important things.
2 comments:
Actually, I'd like them to debate that apology for the next 3 and a half years if you don't mind...
Lol. Since our definitions of "important" vary greatly I'd have to agree.
Of course the process of apologizing is really just a for runner to the proposal for reparations. Can't wait to see how that plays out.
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