Honest Reparations

"Our country, to be a more perfect union, needs to be the land of equal opportunity for all citizens. To me, that is what we should focus on. Going forward, ensuring everyone has equal opportunity should continue to be our quest. Not equal outcomes."

Reparations. The word which keeps popping up all the time. Just when you think it has run its course - there it is again. And the price tag keeps going up. Now, you can hear about trillions owed. Okay - I will bite. Owed by whom, to whom? For example, my ancestors were all immigrants. Post Civil War immigrants. They came from Norway, Sweden, Germany and Holland. Oh, and one came from Scotland also. My point being? None of them were slave owners in Colonial or pre-Civil War America. So then - how much should I owe in reparations? Probably, zero.

I know, I know. Very narrow of you Bird! Maybe, but here is my point. To do reparations the right way, proper damages would need to be determined. "Then year dollars" escalated to today's dollars. And we would need plaintiffs and defendants. In other words, proof that someone living here today, truly had ancestors who owned slaves in America. It is not just good enough that someone lived in Colonial America, that person would have had to also owned slaves.

In addition, not all black folk who live here today are descendants of slaves (in America). Some are, and some are not. Paying reparations to someone who has no roots in slavery, who was not a slave, nor someone who owned a slave, is foolish. Paying reparations to someone whose ancestor was a slave, and was financially wronged by someone who has a descendant here today, now we can talk.

Here is the problem. History is replete with miscarriages of justice. The plundering of the Huns, the Vikings, the Axis Powers during World War II, and so forth. How about 9/11? Should we go after ever person of Middle Eastern decent for compensation? Or the CCP flu? That is costing this country a mint. Go after every person of Chinese decent for compensation? Where does it all stop?

Most clear thinking Americans think that slavery is a blot on our history. We know why it happened, and how it happened. We also know that slave trading was common back in those days. Young America was a minor league player in slave trading compared to many countries back then. But we did play. And that was wrong. No person should ever "own" another person. But we can't go back and unmake our history. America is what it is today because much of what we have done to get here is simply great. But some was not. We do have some warts and bruises along with our greatness.

Honest reparations will probably never happen. Why? It lives in the land of "too hard to prove, and too expensive to do." Like I said, we can't go back and remake our history. But we can learn from it. We will NEVER travel that path again.

Our country, to be a more perfect union, needs to be the land of equal opportunity for all citizens. To me, that is what we should focus on. Going forward, ensuring everyone has equal opportunity should continue to be our quest. Not equal outcomes.