Senate Apology
ray a
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From a blog: "The Senate issued an apology Monday night to the victims of lynching -- 4,743 people killed between 1882 and 1968, three out of four of them black." The referenced article quoted a Tuskegee University study that all but 4 states experienced lynchings.
Comments
What was the purpose of the apology? Does it make us feel any better? Was the senate responsible? By extension are they saying I'm responsible? Or was it just a political or PC act?
This from the Associated Press, that bastion of left-wing thought x;-)
"Lynching is variously defined as a violent act, usually racial in nature, that denies a person due process of law and is carried out with the complicity of the local society. There were reported lynchings in all but four states, with Mississippi at the top with 581 documented incidents between 1882 and 1968, according to researchers at Tuskegee University."
Lynching, except for legal hangings following court trials and jury verdicts was an awful, dastardly, unforgivable activity, regardless of the color of the lynchee or the reason behind it. I had nothing to do with it, naturally, and trust that none of my relatives did. But, it was at some point in history accepted in society or it would not have drawn crowds. I still favor hanging as a means of legal execution.
Should the Senate not also apologize to the Wickans for the burning of witches in Salem? And did I miss the government's apology to the Native American's for our stealing of their land? You cannot meaningfully apologize for something someone else did.
9/29/72; 8/24/82; 8/26/82; 9/6/84; 4/18/90; 5/25/90; 1/16/92; 11/17/92... and a total of 29 more times through the last 13 years. Last apology was on 4/22/05 and they run the gamut from apologizing to the Chinese, Koreans, their own people, Americans, etc.
Our newspaper, a typical liberal rag owned by the Gannett organization, was pressing Cochran for an answer, suggesting since he did not co-sponsor, then he must have supported what happened 50 years ago (a terribly convoluted, absurd deduction in my opinion, but a typical one). Cochran's reply to that was absolutely brilliant. "I am interested in doing my job to respond to the problems of today and not apologizing for the failures of the past. I notice that The Clarion-Ledger Newspaper never apologized for the many editorials it wrote 50 years ago championing segregation." Brilliant.
Politics, Politics, Politics.
1. Especially to the people in the great State of Virginia, for still keeping and displaying in our state capitol, a confederate flag taken during battle.
2. For the defective hearty valves that have been produced locally.
3. For Walter Mondale, Hubert Humphrey, Dave Durenberger, Jesse Ventura, and Paul Wellstone.
4. Really damned sorry about Mark Dayton and Norm Coleman. New York, please come and get Norm. We're done with him now.
5. Especially to the windy people in the City of Chicago, for the Hatch twins.
6. Especially to the people of the Midwest who cross rairoad tracks, for the spilled iron ore pellets.
7. For Olie and Lena jokes, and Eino and Toivo jokes.
8. For soybeans.
9. For Pig's Eye beer and Hamm's beer.
10. For not getting John Dillenger when we had him pinned down in St.Paul.
God knows we are so damned sorry and we'll try not to do it again.
'ere.
Maybe "apology" is the wrong word and maybe we are looking at it from the point of view of someone not involved instead of the doee. What do the families and descendents of the lynching victims think? Does it lend some sort of relief to hear an apology? Instead of an "apology" would they rather hear a statement - "what was done by others was wrong and we cannot condone what was done."? If hearing something just tells them that today we recognize the wrongs of the past I think that helps them, whether called an apology or something else and they are the ones who count. A man who survived a lynching attended the Senate event, so he must have got something out of it. If my father or grandfather had been lynched, I expect that I would like to hear something other than silence or "I can't apologize for something I didn't do". I also expect that I would recognize that individuals cannot apologize for something they did not do but that they can comment about the rights and wrongs of the past. I expect that I would also recognize insincerity when I heard it.
Linda
I think it serves a purpose: It shows that the government/people/entity recognize that what they (or their predecessors) have done is wrong, which opens the door for an acknowledgement by others that the offending entity is aware that its actions were inappropriate. It is then up to the victims (or their descendants) to accept or reject that apology.
Although only symbolic, it may offer the opportunity for some degree of closure for the victims or their descendants. Maybe not all, but apologies do go a long way with some people. Just listen to the number of people who say they forgave a loved one's killer, if he has expressed remorse for his actions. This concept of forgiveness for those who are truly sorry may not be widespread, but it does occur. Therefore, I can't help but feel that apologies, however symbolic, are not meaningless.
Now, please don't start in with anecdotal reports or specific examples. I am discussing apologies in the abstract here, don't bog me down with "yes, but what about this..." or "Yeah, but in this case...." I'm talking theory here, not hair-splitting. x;-)
You can philosophise and theorize about it till the cows come home. Follow the money trail. This is intended to either keep a Democrat in office or increase Jessie Jackson's and Al Sharpton's coffers. It is intended strictly to incite. As long as people keep the flames fanned, there will be a need for a fire department. Let the fire die and the fire department has a layoff. It has no other value.
I reckon those in the windy city also ought to be sorry their street-cops on foot patrol regularly rapped their night sticks against the heads of racial minorities and others who stumbled around in alleys and sat on the steps of apartment slums. I want educators in general to apologize to me for the mistreatment visited upon me and others during our elementary school years when the order of the day was paddling the daylights out of anybody who challenged their authority.
What gets me is when apologies occur with current injustices - like the apologies to the Native Americans for taking their land, while the Dept. of the Interior admits that they have and are continuing to deprive the tribes of their royalities for oil and mineral leases because they haven't been able to track the accounting for the last 20 years or so.