2008 Soap Box Archives

Ugly Words

An ugly word has been surfacing around the Barack Obama presidential campaign lately and the word is reparations, and though Obama himself has said that he is not in favor of reparations or apologizing for slavery, he did earlier make a statement to the effect that the government should stop talking about reparations and do something about them.

As has been the case in so many of Obama's statements, which one do you believe? He seems to have two or three stands on an awful lot of issues.

But this is not a column about Obama's bid for president except for his attitude toward the subject we're dealing with.

The point, in my own humble opinion is this. I'm sick and tired of people telling me that I should apologize to dead people about something that happened way before I was born.

My family did not own slaves and although I think it was a cruel and inhumane practice, I had absolutely nothing to do with it. I had no more to do with it than the present day descendants of Africans whose ancestors sold their own people to the s lave traders.

Just what makes some people think that they deserve to be paid for something that happened to their forebears a century and a half before they were born?

And who would get reparations? How about the black people who came here from some other country than Africa?

And who would pay them? How about people whose ancestors didn't even get here until after slavery had been abolished and what about people whose families never owned slaves?

If we look back far enough, we can all certainly find where all of us had ancestors who were mistreated in one way or another.

I will declare here and now that I believe that any form of slavery is totally deplorable and I regret that my beloved Southland ever indulged in it. But to think that I owe an apology or money to anyone for something that happened before my grandfather was born is something I just can't buy.

If I have ever personally mistreated any person, white or black, and I'm sure that I have in my 71 years, I want to take this opportunity to offer a heartfelt apology to that person and ask for their forgiveness. But I don't owe anyone apologies for slavery.

Do we still hold the bombing of Pearl Harbor against Japan? Do we despise the present day people of Germany because of what Adolph Hitler did? Do we blame everybody in the Middle East and Southeast Asia for 9/11? Do we hold Benedict Arnold's descendants in contempt for him being a traitor?

The answer is no we don't, at least reasonable people don't and neither should reasonable people hold the present day generation accountable for something that happened in the 1800's.

The African-American race has come light years since the dark days of slavery.

Can't we just all forget this foolishness and get on with our lives, together?

Pray for our troops.

What do you think?

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

 

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