I must disagree. I do agree that the PC movement has become too
extreme, and it does nothing but create over-sensitivity,
victimization, stifled communication, and resentment, depending on
which side you're on. But, bottom line, what an apology for slavery
deals with is human psychology. In a relationship, a person who has
been wronged needs that sense of acknowledgment and validation of the
wrongs done to them, even if it is decades later. It's stupid for an
abuser to say oh, I knocked your teeth out 30 years ago, it's over
and done, why don't you just get over it? As long as the wounds and
resentment still fester, and the abuser refuses to say they did
anything wrong, the issue will still exist. I think too many whites,
in an attempt to protect themselves from being blamed for slavery,
have created a bubble of insularity around themselves concerning the
issue, and they have refused to see it anymore, other than in the
abstract. I agree, neither I nor any other white today [with the
exception of the ravening racists who still exist] should be "blamed"
for slavery. But it did exist, it was a vile institution [but not one
that should be blamed solely on the south, at had existed all over
the colonies and has existed throughout man's history]. Read some of
the original papers in courthouses and bring it to life for
yourselves. How would you feel if it was your great- great
grandfather's brothers, two little boys aged 8 and 11, who were sold
away from a farm in Amelia County? Ask yourselves how your gr-gr-gr-
grandmother must have felt, to have her children torn away from her,
probably never to be seen again? I think you'd be pretty resentful.
Or if you read that, say, a Native American in Charlotte County in
the 1850s was selling off a piece of land so he could establish
himself in a slave business buying and selling your white ancestors,
as if they were cattle or sheep. Herd 'em in, sell 'em off, make
money. It would be pretty sickening. Or how about, perhaps, my own
ancestor, maybe a Thomas Cardwell, stolen from his family back in
Lancashire by slave raiders, chained in the hold of a fetid slave
ship, groaning, sick, hungry, thirsty, listening to his fellow
Englishmen around him dying, and emerging to a life where he could
nevermore take a free step. I'd be pretty damned mad, let me tell
you. It was abhorrent. We should apologize for it. But then both
races need to move forward, I think of blacks and whites in this
country as two people stuck in a bad marriage. So many issues, so
many wounds, so much repressed anger. And they've stopped talking to
each other about it. One lashes out, the other lashes back. Both
only half-listen to the other, if that much, and they are no longer
talking issues and problems, they are talking wounds. That's never
good. We need a mediator, a third party, so we can all sit down and
have a civilized airing of our collective pasts, work thru the
wounds, apologize for wrongs, and MOVE FOWARD. Will it ever happen?
You can get so busy looking over your shoulder at where you've been,
you can no longer see where it is you are going. History as we here
love is a wonderful thing, but I see it as a groundwork on which to
understand ourselves through our pasts, and on which to build for the
future.
As for me, to all the black members of this list, don't blame me, and
don't blame the south, but in whatever way I can apologize for myself
and my family, I apologize for what my people did to your people. It
was wrong. I cannot begin to "understand" your experience any more
than I can "understand" what happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany,
since I am not Jewish, but don't sell me short [or insult me]. I am
still a human being and I can be horrified at cruelty done to other
human beings. I have empathy.
Nancy
-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.
--Daniel Boone
On Jan 19, 2007, at 5:28 AM, Clara Callahan wrote:
> Forced and/or litigated apologies mean nothing. Apologies on
> behalf of people long dead who cannot speak for themselves mean
> nothing and are totally ridiculous 300 years on, and those asking
> for them know it. It would be interesting to know how many times
> these politically correct public apologies have been publicly
> accepted by those demanding the apologies. The travesty will be if
> this gentleman is forced to apologize for not apologizing. The
> whole thing is bogus and everyone knows it.
>
> Excalibur131 <[log in to unmask]> wrote: ----- Original Message
> -----
> From: "John Frederick Fausz"
> To:
> Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 2:18 PM
> Subject: VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE
>
>
>
>> When the legislature moved back to regular session in Richmond,
>> however, that warm and cozy feeling quickly vanished. As I read
>> in the St. Louis Post Dispatch on 1/17, Delegate Frank Harmon
>> spoke against a "measure that would apologize on the state's
>> behalf to the descendants of slaves." He allegedly told a
>> Charlottesville reporter that "our black citizens should get over
>> slavery" and then added: "are we going to force the Jews to
>> apologize for killing Christ?" Needless to say, his comments
>> "drew denunciations from stunned colleagues."
>
>>
>> Fred Fausz
>> St. Louis
>
>
> In these times of political correctness, I wonder what Delegate Frank
> Harmon's "stunned colleagues" were whispering behind closed doors?
> Do you
> think that, in secrecy, some of his "stunned colleagues" weren't so
> stunned
> after all and agreed with what he said in part or in whole? Would
> they have
> denounced Delegate Frank Harmon if his words were spoken in
> private? It is
> so hard to tell fact from fiction when political correctness is the
> name of
> the game.
>
> Tom
> Eastern Shore & More Forum
> http://www.easternshoremore.com/forum/
>
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