Reply #79: Yes, it's unwieldy and cumbersome and all that...

[warren pease]

But the fact remains that, unlike the other ethnic/racial groups you mention, blacks alone were kidnapped, shipped over here and forced under threat of severe punishment or execution to build the entire southern economy while the fat white farmers sat on their verandas and bitched about how tough it was to get decent help.

I don't have any idea how to repay blacks for what's been done to them. I'm not even sure it's possible.

I do know that they've been treated horribly, they continue to suffer from America's institutionalized racism, and that somehow that needs to end. Obviously, you can't legislate tolerance. Nor can you flip a switch and change the entire culture and its basic tenets.

Maybe money is not the way to correct things. Certainly an apology is long overdue. I still think a public acknowledgment via some kind of truth and reconciliation forum is a reasonable start.

Strangely, I didn't realize at the time that I had injected another element into the equation. I've heard so many times that money is the way corporations and governments say they're sorry that I guess I just assumed that would have to be part of any formal apology.

Ah well... If I were a really smart guy, I'd have answers instead of just questions. As it is, I'm left just scratching my head, devoid of any useful solutions.


wp