CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Nation :: Blacks want Georgia to apologize for slavery

Everyone can admit that slavery was wrong but damn, all these demands for apologies is ridiculous! The demand that people who had nothing to do with slavery apologize to people who weren't even slaves is absolutely silly! I think though, that I'll start demanding apologies from everyone on behalf of my Irish ancestors!!!!!

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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "WOO HOO, What a Ride!"

They shouldn't apologize to blacks, as not all blacks were slaves.

They should, however, apologize for slaves.

If someone brings forward a former slave, the state should apologize to him...

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Obama's New "57 State Patriotic Pin":

What's wrong with apologizing? What have you got to lose? Are you proud that your ancestors owned slaves? Be careful Mrs M. Your bigotry is showing again.

Show me the fucking bigotry or STFU. You're running your sorry mouth again without a clue.

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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "WOO HOO, What a Ride!"

Lots of our citizens' tax dollars on a meaningless, empty gesture? Does a "state" apologizing solve any of our current racial tension problems in any meaningful way?

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

I don't really think it will solve anything but I am all for it in that relations would be better if it is done than not. It doesn't cost anybody anything for the apology. What I do not get is why people take the time to complain about it really. Is it going to inconvenience anybody? Personally I really have no stake in this issue really but I just don't see the point in really voicing out against an apology when we have much more pressing issues to contend with.

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"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

My great-grandfather fought for the German Army in WWI....I guess I should apologize to the rest of Europe...course I do have Deutsch blood coursing through me...I better apologize to the Jewish people just in case someone in my family's past might have known somone who knew someone who shot a Jew in WWII.

And then I should apologize to the families of the Alamo decedents for my children...since they are half Mexican and all.

I don't care one way or the other, in earnest. But, the fact is that it does cost people money. Our taxes (or in this case, citizens of Georgia's taxes) pay for legislators to be in office. And, the hours/days/weeks they spend deliberating something like this, drawing it up, passing it, and issuing it drain money from the government coffers. I think that racial injustice could be better fought by screwing the "official apology" and donating the money that would have paid for it to an organization like the NAACP.

Of course, on the grand scale, it's pretty meaningless one way or the other. But, that just entrenches me in my position - why bother? Is a token gesture more than one hundred years after the fact going to make up for hundreds of years of human degradation and abuse?

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Good point.

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"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

I'm sorry, but a few legislators in Georgia hardly equates to "blacks" in general.

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When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

lol... I try

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, while "white guilt" gives us something to apologize for, the apology is neither meaningful nor beneficial. Society would be much better served by our elected officials looking at race problems in the here and now, and figuring out what to do. A black person growing up in Atlanta's ghettos isn't going to give a fuck that the state "apologized". He probably won't even equate the apology in any way with his current situation. I'd be much happier seeing our legislators proposing things that might give people of all races/religions/creeds/whatever an equal chance at life, on average.

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

It may be that once a State has apologized, (this is an admission of guilt) it may be that the lawyers behing reparations think it'll be easier to sue for reparations.


Kramer

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“It's time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybody's role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. It's no surprise that our school system doesn't improve; it more resembles the communist economy than our own market economy."
Albert Shanker, former president of the American Federation of Teachers

This does seem rather odd.

Who precisely is apologizing to who here?

The legislature represents the people of the state. But these are people who never owned slaves or supported slavery.
And who are they apologizing to? No former slaves exist.
So what we seem to have is people who haven't supported slavery apologizing on behalf of dead people to other dead people. Seems like a curious waste of time.

If, for some reason, people feel the state needs to take a(nother) position on the slavery issue, wouldn't it make more sense to just pass a resolution condemning all slavery past and present? At least that way the acts of the legislature could sensibly be seen as representing the will of the populace.

Maybe Georgia blacks should apologize for smoking crack, armed robberies, gang violence, rapes, etc.

Before you call me a bigot, stop and realize that today's residents of Georgia are not fucking responsible for what happened in the slave trade days. Add to that when it comes to the blacks that want this moronic apology, the only cotton they've picked came out of a freaking asprin bottle.
The whole premise makes as much sense as asking the parents of murderers to apologize for their offsprings crime(s). What a pathetic and weak venture!

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I sure am glad I was born in America.

It would cost a lot less if people who don't want racial harmony wouldn't fight against it.