Posted by Tina
The U.S. Congress is scheduled to consider a national apology for the country’s slavery and Jim Crow eras. Tuesday’s House resolution, passed by a voice vote, could pave the way for a serious debate over reparations. The apology was authored by a Tennessee Democrat, Steve Cohen who represents a majority black district and currently faces a black challenger in a primary.
This resolution is an empty, feel good, political gesture that wont do a thing for a single person. Whats incredible to me is that the Civil Rights Amendment, something that did change things dramatically, something that was more than an empty gesture, and something that demonstrated clearly that Americans abhored our past history regarding slavery has not been sufficiently acknowledged or celebrated. While a great number of blacks took up the challenge afforded them, accomplished great things and prospered others chose instead to continue to live as victims. If an apology serves to motivate them OK by meI just doubt it will put an end to the propensity to blame others or use race as a way to benefit from special treatment or continue to demand reparations from folks who had nothing to do with slavery.
Beyond my own irrelevant social opinion there is apparently another greater reason to be concerned. Resolutions become a part of our official historical record so I would think the author would be required to get the history right. But according to Michael Medved Representative Cohen has not endeavored to do so:
Congress Endorses a Lie About Slavery, Michael Medved Townhall.com
The problem with the resolution isnt its condemnation of the institution of slavery or its denunciation of the brutal discrimination of Jim Crow; obviously, the oppression and exploitation of millions of African captives represented a monstrous and indefensible crime against humanity. *** The resolution, however, makes a specific point that America bears unique guilt for the enslavement of Africans and suggests that slavery in the United States proved the worst in history, amounting to an unprecedented degradation of its victims. *** Whereas slavery in America resembled no other form of involuntary servitude known in history, as Africans were captured and sold at auction like inanimate objects or animals… *** No reputable historian no, not one would agree with this outrageous statement. *** The House suggests that slavery in America represents some horrible innovation, achieving incomparable levels of degradation? Actually, slavery in the United States strongly resembled all the most common forms of involuntary servitude that have constituted a universal human institution since the beginnings of recorded history. Yale professor David Brion Davis (author of the magisterial and definitive book Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World) suggests that in its very essence, slavery treats its victims like animals. In fact, the practice of enslaving humans began in the mists of pre-history at the same time as the domestication of beasts and pointedly used some of the same cruel techniques to secure unquestioning obedience from man as well as animal. *** Davis writes of the hideous abuse of slaves by the Brazilian tribe, the Tupinamba, long before first contact with the Europeans: It is crucial to realize that such slaves were being treated essentially as animals, a fact symbolized by their ritualistic slaughter and the final cannibal feast. This behavior dramatizes the point that, wholly apart from later economic functions, slaves from the very beginning were perceived as dehumanized humans humans deprived of precisely those traits and faculties that are prerequisites for human dignity, respect and honor.
And might this resolution lead to reparations legislation? Well lets ask one of the candidates for president:
Obama notes tragic US past, by Laurie Au
“I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it’s Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds.”
America is a giant piggy bank to democrats…they just can’t wait to get their hands on all of what we produce. If you are part of the middle and lower classes and you believe they will take only from the rich you are fooling yourself. They will take from all of us.
Please vote wisely in November…