Posted on 10/29/2008 9:43:26 PM PDT by seastay
The story of African slaves and their descendants in America is one of history's worst injustices.
This atrocity was compounded by the U.S. government's resistance to issue even a formal apology in the 139 years since slavery was abolished.
a number of events indicate the government's willingness to acknowledge and remedy past wrongs.
The Reparations Coordinating Committee, of which I am a co-chairman, plans to file an unprecedented reparations lawsuit in the coming months that could amount to trillions of dollars. In the single largest reparations settlement involving blacks in America to date
The root of the word "reparations" is "repair," and it is without question that damage has been done.
The legacy of slavery is seen today in well-documented racial disparities in access to education, health care, housing, employment and insurance, and in the form of racial profiling, the high rate of single-parent homes and the disproportionate number of black inmates.
Bringing the government into litigation will generate a long overdue national debate about slavery. The claim will demonstrate, among other things, the significance of slavery to this country's development, how its benefits extended to every segment of the economy, and how it still adversely affects millions of black Americans.
My own view is compensation shouldn't be in the form of individual checks. It's not designed to benefit the Tiger Woodses
Instead, a trust fund should administer money received through claims, and an independent commission should distribute those funds to the poorest members of the black community, where damage has been most severe.
But the reparations effort is not solely focused on money. Underlying this movement is a unifying principle we can't continue to ignore: This is about making America better
African-American reparations can achieve that goal.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationaljournal.com ...
http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/080331nj1.htm
Another Obama-professor-turned-adviser is Ogletree, 55, who has been at Harvard since 1985. Before that, he was a District of Columbia public defender, which shaped his professorial focus on civil rights and criminal justice. He wrote a book on school desegregation, and he counseled Anita Hill when she testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the confirmation hearings for now-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Ogletree has advised Obama on reforming the criminal-justice system as well on constitutional issues. He is a member of the Obama campaign's black advisory council, which also includes Cornel West, who teaches African-American studies at Princeton University. The group formed after Obama skipped a conference on African-American issues in Hampton, Va., to announce his presidential candidacy in Illinois
I believe our “apology” was the 100s of thousands of union soldiers deaths, the Emancipation Proclamation, and two Constitutional Amendments.
The “messiah’s” ancestry is one of ‘slave sellers’ , not slaves.
Well said, and not only that, they cannot prove who among the white folk had slaves. My family didn’t. They came from Ireland and Germany and were too dang poor to have slaves. They were farmers in North Dakota and Ill. WE don’t owe them a thing.
But the grcious Michelle is said to have slave blood from both sides of her family. Guess that makes up for Barry.
No kidding. That seems to be lost in history.
SHEESH....Obama is half white and half ARAB.....I guess that makes him TWICE as guilty as everyone else????
Which makes him uniquely qualified to ..... and understanding..... reach across the aisle.
Instead, a trust fund should administer money received through claims, and an independent commission should distribute those funds to the poorest members of the black community, where damage has been most severe.
Yup, the money should go to those who did the least to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
I prefer repatriation...
Let’s just call the $700,000,000,000 bail-out “reparations” [added to whatever the Great Society expenditures amounted-to] and, quoting G. Soros, “Move-On”.
Well, I can’t think of a better way of starting another Civil War.
Lest we forget, taxation without representation was a cornerstone of the grievances that started the Revolutionary War. I don’t consider this stacked, democrat controlled congress as representative of me in any way. And this would be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
If you think the American people were angry at the bailout bill and high gasoline prices, add something as stupid as reparations to the mix and watch what happens. Only a fool would suggest such a thing.....oooops, forgot this is Obama and fellow thugs.
I attempted to post this article on Ogletree tonight, not knowing you had already posted it. FR wouldn’t let me post it because it said that USAWeekend wouldn’t allow it.
The reason I wanted to post it is because Ogletree was interviewed on Fox&Friends this morning and he went on about how wonderful the Obama’s were etc, then he was asked if he was in line for a spot on the team. He evaded the question, but you watch, that jerk is going to be part of it. So, if you could figure out how to get that information out, since you are able to post the article, I would appreciate it.
Whom Obama has picked for friend’s tells us that he believes in their radical agenda, which reparations has to be one, I am convinced. However Obama has been very sly not to use the “R” word, himself. If you do a search you will find Obama not has said publicly that he is favor of reparations, and of course the press has taken the hook, and will not bring up the subject, even though any journalist worth half their salt would know that a lot of Obama’s friend do support it. Guilt by association works only if you are a republican.
The best we can find where the press and in Obama’s own words says he does favor reparations are reports on his debates with Allen Keyes. Keyes was quite open and honest about this subject, said he supported it, while Obama running against him , did his usual tactic, he stole Keys platform, but reworded it to make it sound like his own.
If you search the the Keyes debates, you will find that Obama said his plans for reparations was not totake money directly from citizens and give it to his friends, but to tax and to distribute the funds indirectly through government run social programs, e.g using the government to spread the wealth around. In this case it was not so blacks could get ahead as he told Joe the plumber, is was to right the so called injustices that every non black US citizen is responsible to make right again, even if those citizens never owned slaves them selfs, or had family members who owned slaves, or may be of multi- ethnic background with their past family as slaves, or may have lost family members fighting in the civil war to free the slaves.
Reparations have been paid, if we are to believe that this is one nation, the civil war was the costly war in US history in terms of life’s lost, we need to get over this, however unfortunately there is no evidence that Obama or his friends are willing to do so.
Someone should ask Obama how about some pay back for the lives of our relatives that lost their lives on behalf of the blacks. How about the women who lost husbands, children who lost fathers. Perhaps those families should now be compensated. That idea is no more far fetched than repairations are. Wow, we are in for a rough ride. Problem is too many people are on their side. Some because they know the scoop and agree, others because they are ignorant and have been brain washed, if they have a brain at all.
“Instead, a trust fund should administer money received through claims, and an independent commission should distribute those funds to the poorest members of the black community, where damage has been most severe.”
My goodness. Are these people too ignorant to realize there is NOT one black who was enslaved alive today....neither are the enslavers!
Where does it stop? Living in the past dooms us. There are many ‘wrongs’ that can’t be righted to many people, not just blacks.
Their ignorance also is displayed by the fact that many slaves were given ‘reparations’. The slaves of the the Cherokee Indians and blacks living in the territory were given land alotments along with the Indians (the Cherokee agreed to the treaty only after this was given the slaves).
The irony there is, Blacks were given citizenship and the vote in 1870. Women got the vote in 1920. Native Americans didn’t get it until 1925.
Enough of this nonsense.
I wish, but I am afraid this is only the beginning. *big sigh*:( I have such a hollow feeling inside. I try to tell myself this is not the death of my beloved country, that she is only gravely ill and will recover. On the other hand I see no signs of life at all, and my heart breaks.
By the way this Ogletree guy is connected to Kaiser.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.