It's Mea Culpa Week

[Terri]

By Michael Reagan
August 1, 2008

Like altar boys who used to strike their breasts and mutter "mea culpa" ("through my fault") during the beginning of the Latin mass while confessing that they had sinned, Democrats are in full confessional mode, apologizing for every real or imagined sin against a particular group they believe their country once offended.

In the latest example of sheer looniness that has marked the current Democrat-controlled Congress, surely the worst if not the craziest Congress in all U.S. history, the House officially sought forgiveness from Native Americans and the victims of Jim Crow-ism.

They did that in our name, laying upon our shoulders the alleged sins of long-dead Americans and having us cringe at the feet of today's casino-rich Native Americans, and our black brothers and sisters whose votes they lust after.

Just a minute here. Neither I nor any of my immediate ancestors ever lifted a finger against a single American Indian or black American. I have no apologies to make to people I have not offended. If offenses were committed they weren't my fault, or for that matter yours or that of any living Americans.

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[thomas]

"...long-dead Native Americans for having maltreated their ancestors who themselves were not lax in maltreating paleface settlers who they tended to scalp when the opportunity arose."
As well as each other. And the African tribal leaders who gleefully sold their fellow members into slavery. Reparations are wrong - period. Let the wounds heal. We need to stand back to back defending our country from the invading hoards, who are desparately and violently trying to bring U.S. down. The Mongols are at the gate.
The Old Chief

[Dingbat36]

Thanks for the reminder Mike................ ..I carry a different name now but I was born a Callahan, as Irish as Paddy's pig I suppose someone would say. I know those old stories about the injustices to my ancestors and those who mistreated anyone are the problem............. some are still doing it, it's just the targets that are different.

There will always be mean, nasty people in the world, they are there to teach us a lesson but no one has to emulate them, and I'll be damned if anyone is going to blame me for their sins. My English mother and my Irish father (how's that for irony) taught me that no one was better than me and that no one was lesser either. I have tried to live that lesson but the Congress has begun to make that a bit hard.

To the members of the H of R.........do not apologize for me...............I had no part in it, nor did my New England Yankee forebears. To whom are you apologizing......... ......there may be descendants of slaves out there but they are not truly the ones who were "wronged". You can not right a wrong by apologizing to the dead. No one, and I do mean no one will ever find any tranquility in his/her life until past injustices are put aside (I didn't say forgotten, those are lessons). Move on, Congress, you have work to do, work that you are ignoring to make "feel good" resolutions. Your record in working for the American people in the past few years has been absolutely pathetic!

[Ellis]

It's great to have opinions, but your audience might actually assume you have looked into the matter before forming one.

It is obvious that you are not even aware of what Jim Crow laws are. The last Jim Crow law was stricken from the books in 1965(!). It is amazing isn't it? So I don't think the Union soldiers who died had much to do with it, as you maintain. Our modern world, especially the South, had separate facilities and treatment for "colored" people well into the 1950s and early '60s. Brown vs. Board of education determined that segregated State schools were unconstitutional in 1954. I'm sure you would have opposed these changes.

It is time to look beyond knee-jerk reactions and start forming opinions based on fact and reality. Real people are involved.

[Dan Talbot]

Michael,

Great article. Keep hammering the democraps. Here in Massachusetts they call themselves the Democratic Potty. So they are indeed democraps.

[Terri]

Ellis, you may not realize this but 1965 was 43 years ago. Were you making laws then? I wasn't.

Democrats ran the south. It's only in recent years that Republicans managed to get it away from them and it's thrived since.

Democrats still have a member of the KKK in the Senate. Robert Byrd actually wore the sheet but the Democrats have been proud to seat this man in the Senate for many years and let him lead and run their committees.

I'm sure you would have opposed these changes.

You are wrong. You came here to prove your ignorance and you've succeeded beyond your wildest dreams.

It is time to look beyond knee-jerk reactions and start forming opinions based on fact and reality. Real people are involved.

Yes, real people are involved and it's time to quit telling them they are owed a living because of something that ended more than a century and a half ago.

Democrats have had their thumb on Black and poor Americans of all colors long enough.

It's time for ALL Americans to stop playing the victim role, stand up on their hind legs, and take responsibility for themselves.

God knows, listening to the Democrats tell them they're victims and waiting for the Democrats to do it for them hasn't gotten them anywhere.

[MISSL]

Way to go Terri....

I for one am not responsible for any of the bad laws and mistreatment that any blacks (or any other group) received.
Therefore I will not apologize.

And to Ellis: While we are on the subject: I am of mixed descent, grew up with an Italian last name in a community that was predominately Irish and Jewish. I heard every vicious ethnic Italian joke ever made. And because I was painfully shy they let me have it with both barrels. I am not asking for an apology from anyone for the tears I shed at night. I got over it. Others can do the same

And do not give me that name calling is not the same as slavery: It is still abuse....and I again did not own any slaves and neither did my parents or grandparents (who came from Europe)

I owe No one an apology for anything that I did not do. Period

[Terri]

Our modern world, especially the South, had separate facilities and treatment for "colored" people well into the 1950s and early '60s. Brown vs. Board of education determined that segregated State schools were unconstitutional in 1954. I'm sure you would have opposed these changes.

Ellis, it took me a little while to find this quote in response to you but I did find it because you need to read it. And you need to read the entire speech that I took it from.

And so does everyone else, white, black, brown or green with purple polka dots. We need to read this. We need to listen to it. And we need to act on it.

I’m telling you Christians, what’s wrong with you? Why can’t you hit the streets? Why can’t you clean it out yourselves? It’s our time now, ladies and gentlemen. It is our time. And I’ve got good news for you. It’s not about money. It’s about you doing something ordinarily that we do -- get in somebody else’s business. It’s time for you to not accept the language that these people are speaking, which will take them nowhere. What the hell good is Brown V. Board of Education if nobody wants it? ~ Bill Cosby

Emphasis mine.

The quote is from Bill Cosby's Pound Cake speech. You can read it all or you can listen to his inflections in selected quotes. I recommend reading and listening.

Bill Cosby may be speaking to Blacks but it applies to all of us. No matter what color we are we've got to stop making excuses. We've got to take responsibility.

The government is not the answer. Beyond changing laws that made people unequal it never was the answer. It never will be the answer.

The answer lies within the family and the community. Get up, Get going. Get it done.

[DRLJR]

This whole apology thing is classic socialist and class warfare. The GOVERNMENT made reparations and apologies to Americans of Japanese ancestry because the GOVERNMENT violated the law and caused them to lose property and money after Pearl Harbor. The GOVERNMENT paid moneys and apologized to the individuals and their immediate families. Not to 4th and 5th generation individuals.

Slavery was, and still is legal to use in the US - read the 13th Amendment Section 1, legal and accepted in this country even when not liked. The people who wrote the US Constitution worked to phase it out but recognized it would take time. The Civil War was not about slavery but economics. Lincoln would have let slavery continue to preserve the Union - read the history.

This whole apology issue is about perceived injustice. But from where I sit the problem has nothing to do with slavery or even the "Jim Crow" laws. It is the classic "you owe me" attitude.

I suspect Americans like MLK and the ones who came before the current crop of "civil rights whiners" would be appalled at what has been done with the movements they started. The "Black Community" has embraced the destruction of the Black family, drug use, denigration of both men and women and a host of other bad behaviors including the "you owe me attitude". This is not what they struggled and fought for.

Equal opportunity means an equal opportunity to succeed and fail. Every American today has an level playing field to deal with. But if a person's behavior and attitude is questionable or offensive no one has to accept it or to be forced to deal with it. The is what is means to be equal.

Add to this the successful Black Americans speak the language of the country and insured they are educated. They get ostracized by the "Black Civil Rights" groups by not being "Black enough". How many Black Americans have dropped out of school and "refused" the "White Man's" eduction?

The only people harming Black Americans are Black Americans.

As the adage goes "call a spade a spade". It may be harsh but sometimes harshness is required.

[terry44]

Wow! You guys sound angry. But I do agree with Ellis somewhat. There are 435 idiots, plus and administration in DC, not just in one potty.

I have to look in the mirror. My white ancestors (and we are all one) bought other human beings from their chiefs to exploit them and their labor for profit until they died. Yes, the chiefs did profit, but I am sorry, Africa. (Arab men today take children - boys as well as girls - from Africa for slavery of all kinds including sex.)

When the slaves were brought here in chains, they worked on practically no food, were told they could not learn, or even name their own children, and they bore the children of rape from their "masters". They helped us invade and cultivate North America. It was not ours for the taking. We murdered its owners in the name of profit - the new God.

Later we gave the grandchildren of the slaves who helped us "welfare", but only if they denied their husbands and/or the fathers of their children, rode in the back of the bus and drank life-giving water from separate fountains. With all due respect to Bill Cosby who makes a lot of sense, even now these same people, children of God, whom many still think are inferior, continue to suffer from under generations of dependence, lack of education and vision, and low expectations. In their desperation, they turn to violence and then receive unqualified legal representation in court so they make up 95% of the prisoners in NY State's prisons. It all adds up to a huge human and financial cost to our society.

As I look in the mirror, is it my fault, not really, but it is my ancestor's fault. And I see the pain that was caused. I was around 40 years ago when it was happening, as it still is today. Better now, but not perfect.

Unfortunately, now, the "Americans" who say they are protecting the land they stole 400 years ago, use the great-grandchildren of slaves and other immigrants to invade another land for oil. They pay the army in food stamps and blood. All so the people who stay home can drive big cars, pollute the air and water we need for life, and use food for additional fuel, while others starve.

As a Christian I have to look in the mirrow and take resposibility for my part in what was and is and is to be. Will reparations stop violence between people? Will the haves stop trying to exploit the have nots, another more incidious form of violence? Will success always mean someone else has to lose? Will capitalism and profit always be God while we ruin the Earth so a few can live in luxury? No gain or profit ever gave life to anyone except the profiteer - that's history. In the days of billion dollar CEO's, most of whom do not have charitable foundations and keep it all for themselves, how much trickles down to anyone else. So much for tax breaks. In the face of all this reparations are understandable, but unfortunately only a blip on what needs to be done to make us all really free.

I am afraid of our American aggression. If we survive the next 9 years as our air disappears and our water covers us, God help us. Terry