MikeTalbot wrote:I feel no guilt for slavery or any other sin that I didn't commit. Nor do I feel guilt about being a southerner where slavery was more rampant than in the north.
Mike, Like you, my personal conscience is clear. But My sense of empathy is not. While I'm glad I didn't partake of the evil, It does not change the reality that many of our brothers and sisters were severely effected for generations... These are my neighbors, and we all belong to the same family up in the sky...
I'm concerned that even today, there are pockets in America, where men and women, descendants of slaves, are still targeted and abused...Imagine living life in Fear or stress right here in America no less...
It is only because of a dazzlingly corrupt political machine that race is considered at all. Among the mature among us it is not an issue. So why do govt swine and their media cohorts keep stirring up racial disharmony?
They are the ones that should feel guilt.
The Feds politicized it just like they do on immigration today. All about votes. but in the case of slavery, it really need to stop... It wasn't just about the plantation workers, it was also about transport, auctionaing, and wanton abuse. It was a mindset from a white north American /European culture which dictated the heartless and dismissive lack of regard for the human lives that they "harvested' from continents far away.
It had to stop...and thanks to our constitution , and a civil war, it finally did stop... But what never changed, (been the slowest to change so far) is that 'mind-set" Today its much much better than before, but we all still gotta smack our younguns around enough to get them to realize how serious this inhumanity was... My whole point, is that we need to teach subsequent generations how to express real compassion, and own the mistakes. I believe this is the right step toward trust and forgiveness from the people who got hurt. And I personally want to see that as a permanant option