Better Late Than Never? Sheesh!

The US Congress finally got around to apologizing to Americans of African descent for slavery and the Jim Crow laws. Oops, our bad! Considering it took the Catholic Church a few centuries to apologize for imprisoning and disenfranchising Galileo (wait a minute - the world is round? E PUR SI MUOVE!) I suppose Congress is ahead of the curve here.

What a shock that reparations are not going forward; I guess they have not read Chuck D's book! While they're at it, maybe they can also apologize to Italian-Americans for the forced WWII internment camps during World War II -- roughly 600,000 Italians were required to carry identity cards that labeled them "resident aliens." Some 10,000 people in war zones on the West Coast were required to move inland, while hundreds of others were held in military camps for up to two years. Also, Sicilians were lynched in New Orleans around the turn of the 20th century. Did you know that?

How about apologizing to the millions and millions of Native Americans/ First Nations? Sorry we tried to obliterate your culture/ language/ heritage/ health and stole all your land in countless insincere treaties. Oops!

House apologizes for slavery and Jim Crow
Resolution does not mention reparations; commits to rectifying 'misdeeds'

The House on Tuesday issued an unprecedented apology to black Americans for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws. "Today represents a milestone in our nation's efforts to remedy the ills of our past," said Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus...

Congress has issued apologies before — to Japanese-Americans for their internment during World War II and to native Hawaiians for the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom in 1893. In 2005, the Senate apologized for failing to pass anti-lynching laws. Five states have issued apologies for slavery, but past proposals in Congress have stalled, partly over concerns that an apology would lead to demands for reparations — payment for damages...

The Cohen resolution does not mention reparations. It does commit the House to rectifying "the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African-Americans under slavery and Jim Crow." It says that Africans forced into slavery "were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage" and that black Americans today continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws that fostered discrimination and segregation.

The House "apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow." "Slavery and Jim Crow are stains upon what is the greatest nation on the face of the earth," Cohen said. Part of forming a more perfect union, he said, "is such a resolution as we have before us today where we face up to our mistakes and apologize as anyone should apologize for things that were done in the past that were wrong."