triangle.com | Home

What in the hell is point of doing that?  I mean really, what will it accomplish?  Let's consider:  1) It might get Rand some black votes, which is probably the hidden agenda, anyway.  2) It will provide fodder for blacks who feel otherwise disaffected, without doing anything to benefit them.  3) It will alienate progressive blacks (young and old) who do not base their identity on being downtrodden byproducts of slavery.

I am honestly ashamed of Sen. Rand for this proposal, and embarrassed for him as well.  It demonstrates staggeringly poor reasoning skills while at the same time exposing a humiliating weakness of support.

Erin has it right.

It's pointless and shameless pandering. It serves no purpose that will result in any *real* benefit to our state, white or black or otherwise.

It can, however, extend *real* harm. It does nothing but help perpetuate the victim mentality that has hampered the black community for at least 2 generations, and extend the reach of opportunistic politicians and those whose livelihoods and influence are dependent on blacks beliveing that their problems are because of the 'legacy of slavery.' An excuse is an easy sell for a dishonest, oppotunistic politician.

Here's a proposal. How about a "Let's Get Over it and Move On" resolution. Anyone in Raleigh have the guts for that one? Let's have a formal declaration from our State Government that says that the problems we face today are the results of choices made, individually and collectivelly, in the scopes of *our* lifetimes, and that the solutions are ours to find here and now.

Black on black crime, illegitimacy, education, etc. are all *worse* now - (well over a century removed from slavery)- than they were in pre-civil rights years. Public education on which most blacks depend is pathetic at best. Criminals within black communites are treated with kid gloves- and arrested and released with shameful regularity. A small proportion of criminals in peaceful black communities ruin the quality of life for all there, but tough crime stances are resisted.

Any legislators up there want to really help? Start with school vouchers and competition. And put away a few thugs. 

I'm sorry. I'm awfully sorry. I am terribly sorry for any and all human slavery business that any of my ancestors may have perpetrated. Since my ancestors cannot say that they are sorry too....please, on behalf of the abstract concept of their continued existence ...accept their sincere apology, and please forgive them.

gary nelson

Let me get this straight.  A fayetteville representative's apparent high priority is to do something for this state because Virginia is doing it.  I wonder, did Rand check with the other 49 states to make sure it was alright?  I understand that there is another state that wants to pay for bus tickets to send the homeless back home.  Is this the next concern for Rand?  I suggest he move to Virginia or elsewhere since he is obviously more worried about what everyone else is doing instead of focusing on Fayetteville and NC.

I work in an environment where the majority of peoples are black and I have never heard one complaint from them about slavery or reparations for that matter.

Nor, for that matter, have I heard a single complaint from Americans about the wrongs the British levied on us preceding and during the Revolutionary War including murder, burning homes, rape, pillage, etc., ad nauseum.

Next, Rand will try to legislate an apology to Native Americans.  Come on, Rand, what are we in Fayetteville and NC going to do about Wounded Knee??

Our tax money hard at work again!

 should we be sorry for slavery?  Heck yes.  Should the State issue sometype of formal apology?  Who cares!

Shouldn't we be apologizing for something minorities who are alive TODAY really had to suffer through?  I don't know, like segregation, discrimination, racial profiling, lack of a good education, public housing, healthcare...the list could go on and on.

Sure, right after the politicians apologize to us taxpayers for wasting the vast amounts of money they take from us on frivolous baloney like this proposal.

I'd be willing to bet that due to the ever-shifting population and the influx from points North and way South, the vast majority of North Carolinians have no lineage to either side of slavery whatsoever.

We have more important and pressing issues to deal with. Get a life, get a grip !

If the pols want to revisit history, let's remind them that we went to war with England over a 10% tax - what are we paying nowadays ?????

...

I guess that would be true if you think that only those who were slaves were affected by slavery.  Similar to saying that those who were abused mentally, physically, sexually, emotionally, spiritually, and then insitutionally for generations should just get over it once the abuser is dead or jailed or otherwise removed from the havoc they have caused in the abused person's life. 

Now what will an apology do? It won't make me feel any better. Have I, being black, ever be enslaved? No. My parents or grandparents? No. My great-grandparents? No. Those are all the people I remember. The state apologizing won't mean squat. It's just words. Now if the police stop harassing my boyfriend or if the black schools in the north eastern part of the state had the same facilities and supplies as the white schools, then we can talk. Tell Rand that actions speak louder than words.

One thing that non-blacks need to understand. Although slavery has been gone for a long time, remnants of that terrible thing are still here. Just like segregation is still here, just not as obvious because there are no signs that say "whites only."  Instead of an apology, non-blacks need to speak up and speak out against racial stuff they see. When a person's peers are being obscene about another race, say something. We gotta stop being afraid to be different when being different is the right thing to do.