Blacks, apologies, and reparations

[UteStar]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I feel guilty about a lot of things:

not praying enough, not reading scriptures enough, slacking in my calling, not hometeaching enough, etc, etc.

Man, I don't feel guilty about that at all...maybe I should feel guilty about doing it way, way too much. You need to repent Mike, and do it fast.

[TripletDaddy]

Originally Posted by Tex

Perhaps I was too trite as it concerns President Hinckley. Perhaps the gesture genuinely moved him. Good for him. I don't doubt some blacks would be similiarly moved.

The point remains with them, just like with Mormons/Missouri, that it is nothing more than a meaningless symbolic gesture. Mormons are/were not being oppressed in Missouri. Blacks are not enslaved. No amount of gushing from some state or federal legislature changes that.

Moreover, race relations in America are still very tense (the point where the Mormon/Missouri comparison loses steam). Blacks, who rightly demanded equal protection the beginning, have continued to try and take more and more ground, until I think they go too far. Hence, we have the Affirmative Action backlash.

I see an apology as just another way for Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and the like to begin a fresh shake down of American White Guilt. And it's a guilt that no clear-thinking non-racist white person should have to feel. And it reminds blacks of a time when whites did in truth oppress them, an oppression some of them still think they feel today.

Thus I think regardless of what "soothing" such an apology might offer to some, it may not be worth the political capital spent to acheive it.

There seems to be a lot of anger in your post, or at least a lot of resentment. This is what precludes you from simply adopting the humble approach.

The apology is not about righting past injustices. No apology will ever accomplish that. It is simply about a gesture to everyone....not just blacks....the our government recognizes its fallibilty.

To refuse to apologize for an injustice is juvenile and selfish. The only arguments I am hearing against apologies tend to be based in pride and apathy....."why should I apologize?" or "who cares, what will it matter?"

I wonder why, at the Judgment bar, we will all be stricken with a full knowledge of our actions? Why bother making every knee bow and every tongue confess? Why open up the old Book of Life and review the past? At that point, what difference does it make? it wont change anything--what's done it done, no? Why would the Savior pick away at the scab, rip open the scars, and rile up feelings of American White Guilt? Let's all move on, shall we?

[MikeWaters]

Why did the church apologize for the Mountain Meadows Massacre recently? Why didn't they stick to covering it up or at least not apologize?

[TripletDaddy]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Why did the church apologize for the Mountain Meadows Massacre recently? Why didn't they stick to covering it up or at least not apologize?

According to some here, perhaps it was motivated by a desire to stir up White American Guilt?

[Indy Coug]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Why did the church apologize for the Mountain Meadows Massacre recently? Why didn't they stick to covering it up or at least not apologize?

That answer is easy: to help Romney's presidential campaign.

[Indy Coug]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Why did the church apologize for the Mountain Meadows Massacre recently? Why didn't they stick to covering it up or at least not apologize?

They didn't apologize, they expressed "regret".

[Tex]

Originally Posted by Cali Coug

Meaningless to YOU. That doesn't make it meaningless to everyone else. Many clear thinking rational individuals would find such a statement by the government moving and healing.

If you are opposed to an apology based on what other measures it might prompt, may I suggest being in favor of the apology and opposed to such other measures. I haven't heard of a serious movement for reparations for LDS people following Illinois' expression of regret. The US Congress has passed resolutions of regret numerous times in this nation's history. I doubt any of those expressions of regret dealt with a topic that deserved such an expression more than slavery.

Ok, an expression of regret. "We regret that America permitted slavery."

Ah, I feel better already.

Originally Posted by Cali Coug

And yet you continue to argue it will have a negative impact.

In terms of so-called unintented consequences.

[Tex]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Why did the church apologize for the Mountain Meadows Massacre recently? Why didn't they stick to covering it up or at least not apologize?

I can't search on three-letter words ("MMM") but I believe I'm on record as saying this "apology" (or "regret", whatever) was unnecessary.

I'm nothing if not consistent on this.

[Cali Coug]

Originally Posted by Tex

I can't search on three-letter words ("MMM") but I believe I'm on record as saying this "apology" (or "regret", whatever) was unnecessary.

I'm nothing if not consistent on this.

Being consistent is a virtue only if you are right.

[Tex]

Originally Posted by Cali Coug

Being consistent is a virtue only if you are right.

Fortunate for me then, eh?