What's the deal with these idiots marching on Washington looking for monetary compensation for past slavery?

To any of you "YANKEES" that are interested, I was thinking about hiring a lawyer for a class action suit to compensate my family for losses suffered during the Civil War. My ancestors fought for abolition of slavery and died. A graveyard in central Michigan is filled with them. Can I be compensated for that loss of life? Who do I go after? Any legal minds out there?

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 19-Aug-02 AT 09:14 AM (EST)]If we're talking about compensation for past sufferings, then I want money for the mental distress (not to mention humiliation) we all suffered during the last 8 years under King Clinton. Unlike the slavery issue that happened years ago, we all suffered together through this and experienced it first hand. Surely suffering on such a massive scale is worthy of recompense.

I didn't mean to hijack your thread Enduring. My comments were made tongue in cheek, but they have at least as much merit as these people claiming they are owed money because their forefathers were slaves.

This is another example of the "entitlement" attitude that seems so prevalent in the US today. It's the "I suffered so I deserve to be given exhorbitant sums of money that I haven't earned but want nonetheless" syndrome. Only these people haven't suffered. Not one of them has been a slave. Maybe their grandfathers were, but not they themselves. If we take an attitude of "my forefathers suffered, so I should be paid", would we also say "your grandfather murdered and got away, you must pay the price of his guilt"? Ridiculous, right?

And, since my forefathers have always been poor dirt farmers and never owned slaves (documented), would it be fair that my tax dollars be used to settle this supposed debt? In the immortal words of Al Borland; I don't think so Tim.

There is too much about the slave issue that isn't so much fact as it is perception. Tales are passed down, and become fact.
There were atrocities commited on both sides of the slavery issue. Things that happened generations ago. How can you now reward one and penalize the other fairly? It's not only impossible, it's unfair to try.

Just another example of asking for the moon, making a loud enough cry to get noticed, and then see how much they will pay to shut us up.

Ron

 

If the supposed aggrieved forebearers were somehow transported to meet these 'suffering' descendents, I would like to believe they would recoil in horror at the openly greedy attitudes being perpetrated in their names. I also have a hunch they would slap their descendents silly for such dishonor.

 

I think it is OK to compensate every LIVING ex-slave. Relatives -no.
Dono

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 20-Aug-02 AT 05:25 PM (EST)]Who did you see at this march, and just as important, who did you not see? You saw Louis Farakand, the racist Islamic, that spews only only hate from his podium

You did not see The "Reverends" Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Where are their churches anyway? I wonder if I could be "Reverend" like that and get the tax deduction. Anybody know how to get the title?

The crowd was so small it only made news because there was the black Senator Conyers from Michigan present. He ought to be ashamed of himself lending support to such drivel.

So I don't see this "movement" going anywhere but down the toilet where it belongs! Slavery was a terrible thing, but sue the African tribal leaders who sold their brethrern to the slave traders first.

There were actual white slaves sold to ships captains to pay for their passage over to the colonies. They worked to free themselves from the folks they were sold to and many gained their freedon that way. Many black folks fought on both sides of the Revolutionary War. Many gained their freedon from both sides. The losers, (loyalists) left and relocated to Canada and the Eastern Provinces. Some went to England. Some winners, actually were set free, as they substituted for their masters place in the war and contracted their freedom for it. So the matter is much more complicated than those who would choose to simplify it.

So forget it claimants. You have no case because you have no evidence ,and nothing to prove. Not yesterday, or today, at least in a class action suit. Bring your claims, with evidence upon an individual basis, after you sue your tribal leaders for the initial sale. See you in the African courts folks.

 

I have Christian friends (refugees) from the Sudan, who make most American Americans look ... brown and they have no desire to return to Africa. They have been in the country about four years, both the husband and wife have full time jobs, and they are getting ready to buy their first house.

When they got here with absolutely nothing they had to depend on the church, charity, welfare, and section 8. Not any more. The wife herself works full time cleaning hotel rooms and toilets. Man, they are thankful and I bet they would not have minded getting here a lot sooner.

The U.S.A. is a good country, but, the U.S.A. sure is a GREAT country if you want to work for a living.

 

What I'd like to see is somebody actually step up to the plate and find a way to support the morons that did that rediculous display of selfishness.

Take your best shot, then get ready for ours!

'77 F100, 302 (the aftermarket Prodigy), C4
Cadet Second Lieutenant John F. Daly III
South Carolina Corps of Cadets, The Citadel
The TorqueKing

 

When are these people going to wake up are realize that their so called "civil rights leaders" are just using them to line their own pocket with money?

I would ask these morons that support this liberal BS to name just one other country where they would have the same opportunity to succeed that this country offers. If they stopped living in there own self victimization, they just might figure out what this country has to offer. Instead they listen to so called "leaders" that just play on the self inflicted victim status and pump it for every last dollar they can squeeze out of the rest of us.

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 21-Aug-02 AT 06:20 PM (EST)]

>To any of you "YANKEES" that are interested, I was thinking
>about hiring a lawyer for a class action suit to compensate
>my family for losses suffered during the Civil War. My
>ancestors fought for abolition of slavery and died. A
>graveyard in central Michigan is filled with them. Can I be
>compensated for that loss of life? Who do I go after? Any
>legal minds out there?


the civil war didnt start because of slavery. the civil war started because the nothern states went back on a deal that was struck between the two sides and the southern states began to succeed from the union. slavery was brought in as a morale booster for the union troops.

blacks fought on BOTH sides of the war, and at the time there were quite a few black slave owners. i want to know how they will distribute the money. do the decendants of black slave owners get any money? how about the decendants of the black troops for the south, do they get money?

another thing.....why should my family have to pay? my mother didnt come here until she was 12 and my dads side has only been here for three generations. another question......since my mother lived here for 22 years and then moved back to Iceland, will they go after her because she is white and lived in america?

this whole thing is about the "gimme" attitude that most black folks have. welfare isnt enough.....you can only buy food with that. they want cash. white people pay more than 80% of the taxes in this country. people are already angry about that...you add a payment to black people for things that nobody living has done....this country will tear itself apart.

one more thing......ever notice that the majority of blacks pushing for reperations are muslim? where was rev. jackson or sharptin? probably shaking down another corperation.

 

Well said ICE! Well said Brien!

It's the whole victim thing over and over. I think I'll sue Ford for all the stitches and headaches and mental anguish I've suffered for working on my truck all these years!

I think I'll sue the state for not keeping the interstates clear of debris and I got a flat!

I think I'll sue Betty Crocker and PET Ice cream. No one told me that brownies and ice cream with chocolate sauce and pecans, late on Saturday nights watching TV, would make me gain weight. No mention of it anywhere on the carton!

You get the picture.

BTW, maybe I can start up a victims legal fund....hey...umm..that's a good idea.....

Send all your donations to Chuck's-a-victim legal oppression fund. If we win, I'll cut you guys in at maybe .005 percent each. LOL!

These people are out of their mind, but I have no doubt they'll get sympathy from some idiots out there. I heard they are going after companies that existed at the time of the Civil War that may have used slave labor. That's their angle you see. No one wants THAT label in the marketplace so they may pay'em off even if they have no proof. Then once the precedents set.....who knows.

I say it will take people who are not racists, risking being labeled as racists, but with the kahunas to call things as they see them, to stop this kind of crap. The line forms behind me fellas.

Chuck

 

(stepping forward) Present for duty, Chuck, armed and ready!

'77 F100, 302 (the aftermarket Prodigy), C4
Cadet Second Lieutenant John F. Daly III
South Carolina Corps of Cadets, The Citadel
The TorqueKing

 

That is exactly why most people don't say anything, Chuck. If you say anything negative about a black person, you are automatically called a racist. I just can't understand how 12% of the population got so much power? Why do we allow them to push us around so much? Where will it end? Heaven forbid we ever get a black president.

 

> the civil war didnt start because of slavery. the civil war
>started because the nothern states went back on a deal that
>was struck between the two sides and the southern states
>began to succeed from the union. slavery was brought in as
>a morale booster for the union troops.

There is no easy answer to this question. In the north (and commonly in school) we are taught that the war was entirely based upon the abolition of slavery - but this is not really true.

In the south, the popular notion is that the causes of the war had nothing to do with slavery, but with state's rights - but this is also not really true.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle...and each side is guilty of a bit of "revisionist history" in order to justify their actions. Perhaps a better way of putting it would be to say that state's rights was the underlying issue, but that it wouldn't have been brought to the forefront if it wasn't for slavery. A decent, relatively non-biased account can be found at:

http://www.civilwarhome.com/gordoncauses.htm

This account - an excerpt from "Reminiscences Of The Civil War", written by John Gordon (Maj. Gen. CSA) - is one of the better ones I've seen. As he puts it:

"Slavery was undoubtedly the immediate fomenting cause of the woeful American conflict. It was the great political factor around which the passions of the sections had long been gathered--the tallest pine in the political forest around whose top the fiercest lightnings were to blaze and whose trunk was destined to be shivered in the earthquake shocks of war. But slavery was far from being the sole cause of the prolonged conflict. Neither its destruction on the one hand, nor its defence on the other, was the energizing force that held the contending armies to four years of bloody work."

Since he's a lot better with words than I am, I'll leave it at that.

As far as reparations for slavery, I am totally against them - mainly because they will end up targeting *everybody*, including those who never owned slaves, never benefitted from slaves, and those whose ancestors hadn't even immigrated until recently. Heck, my relatives were in Ireland and Germany, except for the bit of Native American blood in my background - and somehow I don't think any of them were oppressing any slaves. The whole idea of reparations is idiotic beyond belief.

Many times I have expressed the opinion that if blacks felt they would have been better off left in Africa, then they are free to return at any time...and if they would rather be here, then what are they complaining about? It isn't like any of them have ever personally been slaves, and because of slavery they now have the chance to live in a country of limitless opportunity...so make use of that opportunity and stop whining!

I'd better end this post before I start getting riled up.

LK

 

>These people are out of their mind, but I have no doubt
>they'll get sympathy from some idiots out there

My apologies to the good people of California, but you're right Chuck. I've read that the powers that be in that state are seriously considering reparations whether the rest of the country follows suit or not.

Hopefully there won't be a "follow the leader" mentality on this one, but I'm not holding my breath.

As for corporations, sometimes a good chest beating cry of "mea culpa" is all it takes for the dominoes to fall. There is a newspaper syndicate that has already admitted that they ran ads for companies that used slaves as well as an insurance company that said they MIGHT have issued life insurance policies on slaves to the owners. You can almost see the dollars ready to pour out from these two companies. The problem here is that at that time, slavery was legal and so these companies did nothing but conduct business as normal.

As has been said, it is impossible to determine which individual would receive reparations and who should pay.

IF....and that is a huge IF......money is given to right these wrongs, it should go to a fund or foundation that will be for the betterment of all. It should be used for education scholarships, building schools, and improved housing. How to oversee that fund is another can of worms.......

Ron

 

I guess I'll add my coment to this very disturbing post. I think all black slaves should get what was promised them after the war. 40 acres and a mule. You bring me actual proof that you were a slave and your tribe sold you into slavery and I'll personally give you 40 acres of my small farm. I don't have any mules and I'll have to apologise for that but who uses mules any more. Would you settle for a small John Deere instead. Hope I can help any former slaves out. Oh buy the way , my great grandfather owned a few slaves and the great north set them free. I was wondering if I could inquire into getting back the money he spent for buying these slaves. After all he lost also.