Friday, February 20, 2009
Things that Piss Me Off (1)
Someone presuming that they have the right to demand an apology from ME for something I had no control over.
Case in point: Slavery in America.
It happened. It was awful. ... There are no adequate words to describe the hypocrisy in the words of the Declaration of Independence, and the fact that it took our country almost 100 years from the writing of those words to abolish that horrible institution.
To DEMAND a personal apology from me, as a person who's skin is white, on the other hand, is ludicrous, and racist.
The last (of the two) Emancipation Proclamations was issued 103 years, 11 months, and 4 days before I was BORN. The Civil War (over slavery) ended 100 years, 7 months, and 26 days before I was BORN. The Amendment to the US Constitution that eradicated slavery in the US was made law 99 years, and 364 days before I was BORN.
To bring things to the present, I made my best efforts to persuade, cajole, ... whatever, to get my folks to not vote the way they did in the previous election, and it didn't work.
With that in mind, if I can't effect my parents current behavior (and, therefore, have some responsibility for it), how in the world can I be responsible for something that ENDED 100 YEARS BEFORE I WAS BORN?
If I cannot have had any effect on it's cause or it's existence, then I CANNOT be held responsible for it having happened! That's just simple stupid STUFF!
Holding me responsible, or demanding an apology of me, for something in history because I share the same skin color of the people that did it is, by definition (by Federal Law), a racist act.
Yet, if I don't offer the apology, I am(in some people's perception), somehow, the racist?
That is ludicrous, and it pisses me off.
Case in point: Slavery in America.
It happened. It was awful. ... There are no adequate words to describe the hypocrisy in the words of the Declaration of Independence, and the fact that it took our country almost 100 years from the writing of those words to abolish that horrible institution.
To DEMAND a personal apology from me, as a person who's skin is white, on the other hand, is ludicrous, and racist.
The last (of the two) Emancipation Proclamations was issued 103 years, 11 months, and 4 days before I was BORN. The Civil War (over slavery) ended 100 years, 7 months, and 26 days before I was BORN. The Amendment to the US Constitution that eradicated slavery in the US was made law 99 years, and 364 days before I was BORN.
To bring things to the present, I made my best efforts to persuade, cajole, ... whatever, to get my folks to not vote the way they did in the previous election, and it didn't work.
With that in mind, if I can't effect my parents current behavior (and, therefore, have some responsibility for it), how in the world can I be responsible for something that ENDED 100 YEARS BEFORE I WAS BORN?
If I cannot have had any effect on it's cause or it's existence, then I CANNOT be held responsible for it having happened! That's just simple stupid STUFF!
Holding me responsible, or demanding an apology of me, for something in history because I share the same skin color of the people that did it is, by definition (by Federal Law), a racist act.
Yet, if I don't offer the apology, I am(in some people's perception), somehow, the racist?
That is ludicrous, and it pisses me off.
