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Friday, August 10, 2012

What The President Might Have Been Saying

As I have listened to the clip from President Obama's Roanoke speech, I have wondered if what he might have been talking about was the fact, which surface a couple of decades ago, that many fortunes were made, based upon slaves and the slave trade, including here in New England.  When the President says "You didn't build that" he is echoing the words of others who have said that many long standing fortunes in New England were based on slavery, even down to these days.

I am one of those who recognizes this debt to our past, although I don't see it as the absolute explanation for our economic success as a nation.  Recognizing the evil of slavery, I would be happy to pay reparations.  That is, I would be happy if we could find someone with the stature and authority to issue absolution and make this issue go away for ever.

On the other hand, President Obama is on record as opposing reparations and calling for helping all the poor in this nation, with things like a college education.

This take on the President's speech—that it is about the fruits of slavery—suggests that all of us need to have a better understanding of our nation's economic history.  Also, this is a different spin than that put forward by Professor Elizabeth Warren.

I still think the President's speech runs orthogonal to our American experience of how things happen, but this explanation does call our attention to the mistakes of our past.  The founding of our nation, back to the early 1600s, includes both good and bad.  We should celebrate the good and acknowledge and repent of the bad.

Regards  —  Cliff

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Reparations?? To who?? How do you determine eligibility? We are talking a number of generations past. It was bad then, it is bad now, and that is why we don't practice slavery today. The argument that the poor and downtrodden are "slaves" today because of the excesses of "the man" are pure bull. The original slaves had no choices before them...other than death. These people today can get up on their own two feet and go out and find work....sure...maybe not a 6 figure income...but they can find work. It is out there. But they won't, they don't, and I am tired of paying for them.

People who have been laid off in the past years who claim that they "just can't find a job" are not serious about finding A JOB. What they want is employment in their "field" and at a salary level commensurate to what they were making in the last one...or better. They don't want to take "lesser work." So..they sit and live off of unemployment and complain that they can't find "a job."

In the thirties, hundreds, perhaps thousands of "Arkies and Oakies" packed up what very little they had off of properties that had been their homes in years previous.....and they went to where they thought they could get work.....any work. Many of them became very successful but they climbed a torturous ladder to do so. I knew one such family in my youth. They were from Arkansas. They lived in a shack across the road from where I lived. The entire family worked from dawn to dust....most often in the surrounding apple and pear orchards. Eventually they accumulated enough money to replace the shack and get rid of the old beat up 30's something Ford. Joe Carroll died in the late 50's....worn out...but the owner of a convenience store in that little grease spot on the highway...and his children all went to college and became very successful business people. It was.....and is.....the pioneer spirit that provides the opportunity and the means to achieve......not some government handing out reparations out of some nebulous "national guilt."

Jack Mitchell said...

So, you finally heard the conservative dog whistle. Welcome to Race Baiting 101.

I'm not hear to portray conservatives as racists. I know the poison of racism crosses all stripes.

That said, please hear this.

The "you didn't build that," to some, rang as a justification for reparations. Further still, the concept, though rooted in slavery, has grown into a class action.

The racists fear that "you didn't build that" is a dog whistle that means "we are coming to take it away."

If by "taxation" you think "reparations," you would be wrong. If you figure, stop the middle class from withering on the vine, you'd be much closer to whatever truth resides in our wild and wonderful American melting pot


Today, we are not slaves. Though we are enslaved by our own avarice. The US's zeal for consumption has risen to pornographic levels. That lust is fluffed by commercial media flashing what we WANT in front of our hungry eyes.

Wall Street makes the money float around, all the while skimming from the till.

This paradigm is failing. To much of the middle class, though free in body, owes their soul to the company store.

Ever orthagonal to reality, I can't wait to hear Neal wax erratic, shilling for the 1%.

Anonymous said...

As with all good progressives, ignore the questions and pose different ones. Reparations, taxes, you pick another term that suits your philosophical bent, the question continues to remain. To who? Followed quickly by "For what?" followed again quickly by "Who is eligible?"

Just like a number of times on this blog site I have asked, "How much is too much before a hard working person must give a little more back to those who don't have as much?" Funny how that NEVER gets an answer....besides some nebulous rhetoric that castigates the "1%" in favor of the 99%....whoever in hell either of them are. Once again..."qualification" for either label?

I keep asking but never get answers....just more socialist propaganda.

BTW....I am far from a racist....or a 1%'er.....and even further from being a "conservative Republican." You can throw the label all you wish Jack...but it doesn't stick to me.

But then....I do realize that the only REAL viewpoint is that which YOU espouse.

Jack Mitchell said...

I realize you aren't any of the things that you whine that I am labeling you with, Neal.

I don't know what you stand for. Except, you stand for yourself and you have a gun.

Pffft.

Anonymous said...

Jack, I do.....and I do....I learned the hard way long ago that nobody is going to stand up for me except me. I also learned that what other people think of me is just that and nothing else. I don't march to another persons drum beat.

Pfft.

Jack Mitchell said...

Glad we got that clear. You are a "grassy knoll" from making a difference in the future.

C R Krieger said...

Just a tad edgy.

Regards  —  Cliff

Anonymous said...

A typical high brow, condescending response Jack. I suppose you are the one who will make a difference in the future? I'll make a difference when and where I can...now....AND in the future. The "grassy knoll" comment is a bit slanderous...but that is the liberal way.