1) Did the people that do this break laws. Yes! 2) Can you send the grandchild of the person who did it to jail. No. 3) Was slavery wrong? Yes. 4) Is their anything to be gained by only apologizing? No
I think an apology does wonders. It shows acknowledgement. It shows validity. I don't think monetary apologies are needed. I didn't even say jail time for anyone. But I do think an apology is appropriate, out of respect.
No, it was allowable to kill a slave especially if there was an escape attempt or rebellion and there needed to be an example presented. Moot point. Correct. Wrong, unless you never just only apologize for anything. The acknowledgement of participation is a powerful salve, not to mention the beginning of a good closure for that era. I know it was over a hundred years ago when slavery was abolished but the effects of it are still with us today in the attitudes and mindsets of people. We are still dealing with people who had to fight for their civil rights because those rights were denied due to the slavery connection.
The whole point is that no one who was a slave will hear the apology, and no one who persecuted salves will offer it. As far as I can tell, no one in my family ever owned slaves. No one in my family ever lynched blacks, etc, etc, etc. Why should I apologize? In a nut shell, what you're suggesting is that I should apologize simply for being born white (or, more specifically, being born a white American). Ain't gonna happen.
If we are going to start apologizing for everything this government has ever done wrong then we should start in chronological order. Guess we would get to this particular issue in oh say 2010. In the meanwhile the government sets new standards for inefficiency.
You should not and none have suggested that you do so have they? No, that is your spin on the GOVERNMENT being asked to make an apology for the GOVERNMENT's part in the slavery issue.
We admitted it was wrong when we abolished it. It does no good to continue to rehash that fact. Don't we also owe apologies to the American Indians and women. It will never end because next we will be apologizing to the American white male for reverse discrimination.
The stoppage of a wrong is not that same as apologizing. The current Japanese government was not in power during WWII when the abuses of the people in the conquored territories happened. Should they apologize for the actions of the prior government or just say the abuse was stopped so we admitted it was wrong? How about the German government during the same period? Would an apology be good for the people who lost relatives they never knew or is the fact they stopped killing them enough? Actually, it does as those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of history. Yes, we owe the Native Americans an apology as well. Women we can think about for aq while longer ... :lol: :lol: Would that not then be the end?
We are all connected. Alive or dead. I don't think because you are born white you should apologize. I think if you were born human you should. We are all in it together. Like it or not. and I agree the government has a lot of apologizing to do, to a lot of people and places. I don't understand how people can't stand the stretching and "crumbling" of the Constitution but on the other hand want to forget about what actually was happening during the time of its development. "Declaration of Independence, 1776 When the American colonies broke from England, the Continental Congress asked Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence. In the declaration, Jefferson expressed American grievances and explained why the colonists were breaking away. His words proclaimed America's ideals of freedom and equality, which still resonate throughout the world. Yet at the time these words were written, more than 500,000 black Americans were slaves. Jefferson himself owned more than 100. Slaves accounted for about one-fifth of the population in the American colonies. Most of them lived in the Southern colonies, where slaves made up 40 percent of the population. " Interesting.
That is a geat point. No end to the apologies. Then lawsuits because an apology was not given to another group. Why do we need to give validity to anything that is written history and has been proven already?
ahhh.....one of my favorite subjects. The great Thomas Jefferson. He was against slavery, but their are many factors in play. Review some of hi s thoughts here. http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot...ct=text&offset=680510&textreg=0&query=slavery
Their will never be an end to the apologies once started. Don't the Japanese owe us one for bombing Pearl Harbor? Their is a difference between learning history so that we don't repeat it and trying to right history by apologizing. No amount of learning will let me truly understand what Thomas Jefferson was thinking. An apology will not fix any wrongs committed and by itself will only make people feel better. What about somebody that believed in slavery. Are we not offending them by apologizing for something that was legal and normal for them?
lol, ain't that something? yes, letting them loose is like abandoning children. It sounds a lot like the National Geographic shows where they take some poor wounded rare animal for it's own good, exploit it (put in zoos and circuses), breed them, then return it to the wild before it becomes so helpless to fend for themselves... Fact is, he had slaves and slaves are human. And just so I can flip it to the other party...the hypocricy is like Gore talking about how we should stop Global Warming as he sits in his mansion with his huge electric bill and traveling by jets and SUV's...or is he driving an eco-friendly vehicle. :roll: That is the fascinating thing about all of this...we know it is wrong now. We have progressed as a culture to know what is right. So why not take it upon ourselves to show that growth as a whole.
You were speaking of our apologies at first and now you have moved the goal posts. The Japanese owe us an apology for the delay in the declaration of war, which had it been given at the correct time would have been a legal act of war. There is no attempt to right history, but to heal the wrongs, which is an entirely different thing. Which is generally the reason for an apology is it not? But as you said those people are long gone .... right?
Sure, now that you agree the people who are alive would benefit from the apology and those who would be offended are dead.
