Posted on 05/21/2002 3:26:25 AM PDT by The Raven
Reparations for descendents of slaves is picking up steam -- not among the 80 percent of the population who (according to polls) oppose it; but with big name politicians in one of our two major parties. (Guess which party?)
The Governor of California, Gray Davis, has refused to rule out using state tax dollars to take money from non-black people to give to black people for wrongs committed hundreds of years ago. Jesse Jackson, approvingly standing with Governor Davis on a stage during a campaign event, reassured the audience that any slave reparations should go to nonprofit groups (including, presumably, his own?) rather than victims’ descendants.
The transfer of wealth from productive members of society to those (of any race) who would loot it is nothing new. What's new about the slave reparations issue is just how morally low the attempt to rationalize and justify these transfers has become.
It used to be that such transfers were called "investment" in the economy -- for the benefit of all. Or class action suits which compensate real, existing people who were allegedly victimized by real, existing victimizers.
Slave reparations means forcing someone whose great-great grandfather wasn't a slave to hand over still more of his income to an individual whose great-great grandfather was a slave. It's punishing people for the sins of their great-great grandfathers, and rewarding people for the fact that their great-great grandfathers may have been victims.
The transfer of wealth has hit a new low. In fact, it's a moral obscenity. To even hint at the validity of such a move as launching a study on slave reparations -- as the Governor of one of the country's largest, most influential states has now done -- demonstrates how far adrift our leaders have gone from the principles of individual liberty, freedom and personal responsibility.
It's encouraging that 80 percent of the population sees this for the nonsense that it is. It will also be encouraging if Governor Davis' opponent will use this issue against him, successfully, in the campaign for governor this fall. But what happens when white people who oppose such a measure, on principle, speak out against it? Will they go wobbly for fear of being called racist? That's the as yet unanswered question, which makes slave reparations a real possibility.
Keep an eye on another case: Civil rights activist Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, who claims she is the descendant of slaves, has filed a suit against health insurance Aetna Corp., CSX Inc. and Fleet Boston Financial, seeking upwards of $1.4 trillion on behalf of 35 million such descendants in the United States.
That such a case was not immediately thrown out by a judge is a disturbing sign of what may be coming. What the looters won't be able to get legislatively (since one of our two major parties still opposes slave reparations), you can rest assured they will get judicially.
It's fascinating. We live in a country which has taken excuses to an unbelievable level. Andrea Yates was nearly let off for murdering her children because of being depressed; smokers are reimbursed in class action lawsuits for choosing to smoke when they know full well -- as we all have for decades now -- that smoking will likely cause lung cancer; killer O.J. Simpson was let free not because of a lack of evidence to convict, but because it was felt too many black people were being prosecuted in America.
Individual responsibility is out the window, so far as our political and moral leaders are concerned. Yet if your great-great grandfather did something wrong, like owning slaves -- now that's another matter.
Reparations proposals represent America's new slavery. In the past, the black man was enslaved. Today, anyone who isn't black will now be enslaved to work for the black slave's descendents. What do you think this does to the moral stature of everyone involved -- their independence, their sense of justice, their goodwill towards people of different races?
Unless the 80 percent who oppose this new form of slavery start to speak up against it -- without fear of being called "racist" -- you can better believe we're all going to pay in one form or another.
We can't even pay for the oldest liberal fad.
I'd like assurances in writing that my future social security benefits won't be reduced because in 2020 we "discover" we can't afford it anymore.
If I ever pay for reparations I want to own my own slave. Don't call me a racist! Call me a person that expects something in return for my investment.
Now don't give me that crap you built America with your bare hands, because I'm going to tell you yes, and ever since, I've been paying for you with handouts. Including the great society programs that didn't do anything but transfer wealth from one pocket to another. That was an investment that should have been deductable as a Loss!
So true. It's a shame that such a "civil rights leader" as jesse jackson can't realize that this is about 50 giant steps backward in race-relations.
Jesse Jackass is not a "civil rights leader"; Jesse Jackass is a self-aggrandizing, racist, bigoted, womanizing, adulterous, predatory piece of bovine excrement.
I will never willingly give up one red cent to this "reparation" scheme.
This type of crap will do nothing but separate the races, again, and likely cause the next "civil" war.
There are even some liberals that see this game as a scam, as a ploy to extract money from the "rich" and give it to the "poor".
I say it's bullshirt, and do not apologize for my opinion.
We should never, under any circumstances, be for "reparations" of any type, style or scheme.
This is nothing more than another welfare scheme.
I will never willingly give one red cent to this crap!
1. African Nations that sold their own people into salvery need to pay the United States for their up keep.
2. African American's who whine about being decendents of slaves need to pay the United States for the difference in what they make and what the average citizen in the African country they claim the came from makes.
3. Anybody that has been on welfare needs to pay back the welfare they have received . . . with interest!
You do not have to let the NAACP and other racist organizations define the argument. That is a sure way to lose.
You want to have reparations ... well try this on for size.
Sorry, I could'nt resist!
*Is it called midnight basketball because midnight is the safest time to steal a basketball? Has any midnight basketball game ever been canceled because of an eclipse?
*When did the civil rights movement turn into a fund for underwriting the peccadilloes of Jesse Jackson?
*By now, haven't reparations for slavery and the royalties due to the descendants of the Caucasian Dr. James Naismith, for inventing basketball, canceled each other out?
*Isn't it time the DEA paid inner city drug pushers to add a chemical to cocaine that reverses the effects of Viagra?
*Can Al Sharpton win the presidency if he can only meet with the vast majority of his constituents on visiting day?
* When they call Bill Clinton the first black President, are they referring to his heart? And, as the first black President, will Clinton claim he is eligible for reparations for slavery - and can we deduct from that amount the stuff he and Hillary stole from the White House?
* When will the NAACP lobby Congress to change the name of our capital to Inner City, D.C.?
*Is it possible Jesse Jackson is really Idi Amin's money-hungry brother, Gridi Amin?
*Wouldn't America be a more civilized country if the South had won the Civil War?
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