AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE!............

This has got nothing to do with a feel good apology.

It's got nothing to do with "being the right thing to do"

This is about laying the groundwork for another whining law suit pertaining to reparations.

I say keep your APOLOGIES because it dosen't pay the bills.
It's easy for you to say-----MOVE ON--- because it hasn't happened to you and probably not any of your family members. If the Jewish prople can get restitiuton and still cry about their slaughter, why shouldn't the AFRICAN AMERICANS talk about it ? The government owes them a HELL OF ALOT MORE!!!!!!!! So I say, THE HELL WITH WORDS, SHOW THE AFRICAN AMERICANS THAT YOU MEAN IT.

Injcsince81....I did not know that! (nor will I quote you)

...I'm so verklempt! Maybe a Rabbi can issue an apology and appease my New Jersey brothers and sistahs?

Sigh, more politicians trying to appease to the minority voters with stupid stunts like this is really getting to me.
Personally, and i think i speak for a large part of NJ residents, but my ancestors were not in this country until the early 20th century. How can we apologize for something we had nothing to do with? Yes, slavery is wrong, and it tarnishes our nation history. I'm not saying we need to forget it ever happened, but i think it's time we moved on...

The only way for the future of our state, and country to not make race an issue, is TO NOT MAKE RACE AN ISSUE.

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Anti-Semitism is so pass?!!

Christian bashing; now that?s cool !!!

DTG

Interesing how the cloak of anonymity of a PC allows some people to say things beyond the pale.

620,000 to a possible 700,000 soldiers died during the civil war.

40,000 of them were black (30,000 of those died from disease)

I'm sorry if my irreverence offends, but the current generation of white Americans owe no apology to the ancestors of slaves.

Blood was spilled to pay for the freedom that we enjoy today.

Enough of this white guilt, already.

groovejet: The attempt at irreverent "Sarah Silverman" humor is really in poor taste and brings the quality of the site down.

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I heard the Jews ran it, but don't quote me on that.

An apology?.... Excuuuuuuuse me?

Slavery was legal prior to the civil war.

And, by the way, Living in Africa is no picnic.

Aids... Famine... Drought... Flies using your eyeballs as an ice skating rink.

I'd be running up the gangplank of the Amistad if I was African!

If you want an apology - you should be asking the Dutch - they started it.

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CK - we are on the same page regarding this. I really hope that the majority of the black community in the US is against reparations. At the same time, state apologies for slavery are plain silly and strictly PC.

It is as if the Germans started apologizing to Russia for their 26 million killed in WWII, or to Poland for their 6 million killed.

If that happened, I would say - fukk you, Germany. Just pay the reparations to the living SURVIVORS OF YOUR TERROR AND THE IMMEDIATE FAMILY OF THOSE KILLED, but not the descendants.

From what I understand, the US and international law says pretty much the same.

Otherwise Italy would still be paying for what Julius Ceasar inflicted on the rest of Europe...

WTF???

Saying sorry doesn't necessarily mean reparations - otherwise we should all be paying rent to our native Americans.

Keep your chin up VV'ster - righteousness and ethics are at times, not part of the JC psyche for some!

Perhaps I am naive as I honestly don't think it's about money as governmental apologies have been made to other groups who have been grievously wronged. When I grew up in central Jersey back in the 70s/80s, slavery was a blurb in the textbooks and sort of washed over during class and judging by some postings on this site, we were all deluded to think that it wasn't that horrific and so long ago (e.g., "it happened like 300 years ago" when it ended in the 1860s only to be subsequently followed by sharecropping, Jim Crow, lynchings and civil rights struggles of 1960s, etc.) That my father who is in his 70s remembered and knew his grandmother as a very little boy who was actually a former slave during her lifetime, shows it wasn't as far back as some of you would like to believe.

Kindelan rocks imho.

INJC, I AGREE, THIS IS NOTHING MORE THAN A PLOY IN ORDER TO OBTAIN A "PAY-OUT", I WOULD BE EMBARRASED TO BE PART OF ANYTHING LIKE THAT, KNOWING THAT MY FAMILY EMIGRATED FRON ANOTHER NATION TO THE US AND WORKED HARD AND BLUE COLLAR JOBS TO OBTAIN A PIECE OF THE AMERICAN DREAM AND WHEN TIMES WERE TOUGH AND THE GOOD OLE "WELFARE" CHECK WAS AN OPTION, MY PARENTS WORKED EVEN HARDER SO AS NEVER TO BE LIKE OTHERS WHO MAKE IT THE "NORM"TO ACCEPT THE STATE FUNDED HAND OUTS .

IF ANYONE DESERVES AN APOLOGY, IT IS INDEED THE NATIVE AMERICANS, GOD BLESS THESE PEOPLE FOR ALL THEY HAVE HAD TO PUT UP WITH !

CK

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Gotta love those side discussions in the SB.

I am so glad Mr. "hit and run" Kindelan is providing you with moral support, VanVorster.

But you don't need it. Not from a nitwit like Kindelan.

Nowhere did I say that "all blacks" expect a check.

I said it's "all about the money". Mostly for activists who campaign for reparations. Sorry if I did not make it clearer.

I hope that the African American community at large cares as little for a BS apology as they care for a symbolic check, although I suspect that the majority would not return said check if they got it.

Injcsince81 and CK erroneously believe that all blacks are waiting for checks to arrive in their mailboxes. As I said before, I could care less about the apology as it won't change the past or the small minded people on this site.

Yes, apologies are warranted to Native Americans.

http://www.nativeres.org/

What's wrong with an apology? Slavery was institutionalized. That institution would now be making an apology. It's symbolic. Seems perfectly admirable to me.

And I agree, Native Americans deserve one too.

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CK - it is obviously not about the apology. I'd be surprised if many in the AA (African-American) community cared about a bullshit apology 300 years later. Like pretty much everything these days, it's about money. Reparations for slavery. Potentially billions of dollars.

My concern is that apologizing is a first step towards paying reparations.

The bright side is that chances of reparations happening are slim to none; otherwise you'd have lawyers all over this case.

1) Go get a job and stop asking for handouts?
2) Stop acting like the world owes you something and pull your own weight?
3) Work hard like all the rest of us?

Brainwashed much? Yeah CK, I am home right now and everyday in front of the TV, eating takeout waiting for my welfare check to arrive. And you have the gall to say I am the angry one. Where do some of the people on this list come from?

VANVORSTER, I MEAN A-HOLE, IT'S NOT MY PROBLEM , NOR ANYONE ELSE'S AS TO WHAT RACE YOUR WERE BORN INTO, AND IF ANYONE IS ANGRY, IT IS YOU AND NOT I.

FURTHERMORE AND FOR YOUR EDIFICATION, I WAS SCHOOLED IN THE SAME SYSTEM, I.E. JC THAT HAS AND CONTINUES TO PUSH THROUGH HERDS OF CHILDREN W/O ACTUALLY TEACHING ANYTHING LIKE THE BASICS, I.E. SPELLING , ETC, ETC.WHY, ALL BECAUSE OF THIS PRACTICE OF APEASMENT TO ALL THE FOLKS THAT FEEL THEY NEED AN APOLOGY FOR WHAT TOOK PLACE 300 YEARS AGO.

WE'RE THE LAUGHING STOCK OF THE WORLD WHEN IT COMES TO ALL THIS BS.

GO GET A JOB AND WORK HARD LIKE ALL THE REST OF US DO, AND STOP ASKING FOR HANDOUTS LIKE IT'S OWED TO YOU !

YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YRSELF.

CK

Do the states issue apologies for mass killings of native Americans and for locking up the survivors in concentration camps, err, reservations?

It appears some might like to discriminate against one 'holocaust' from another, with time!

JCLXZ wrote:

"Why am I being forced to apologize for something my ancestors had no role in? The living descendants of the "victims" are far better off in America than in Africa. What is being apologized for exactly?"

Spare me the hyperbole: "forced to apologize". It's not like you're getting our your Crane stationey personally to write a letter. It would come from the legislature because New Jersey had one of the largest slave populations in the northern colonies, was the last northern state to free slaves and was the last northeast state to abolish slavery, doing so in 1846. New Jersey also allowed authorities to return runaway slaves (many of them children) to their owners.


So because the living descendants of slaves are living better off in America, then somehow slavery was implicitly a good or permissible thing? Jeesh, you're just as much a dullard as Assemblyman Carroll.

http://www.bluejersey.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6527

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Why am I being forced to apologize for something my ancestors had no role in? The living descendants of the "victims" are far better off in America than in Africa. What is being apologized for exactly?

by CANKICKER on 2008/1/4 10:18:44

Why does this state or any other state for that reason have to apologise for the sins of the powers to be over 200 years ago ?

Does it trully make things better with regards to race relations ? does anyone really ask that question and if so whats the answer ?

It's time to move on people, lets stop the madness with the race card ,lets start basing judgement on one's abilities and qualifications and not skin color, time to do away with this nonesence of prefered treatment for those groups who refuse to pull their own weight and trully do the right thing !

With the damm problems in this state, our legislature should be concentrating on lower taxeS, better health care and education + solid economy !!!

And Archie Bunker, I mean CK, it's perhaps time for you to let go of your seething not-so-veiled anger and perhaps consider going back to high school and actually learn something including how to spell/write.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa

Personally, I don't need an apology as it won't change the past and won't change those with really ignorant views.

Why does this state or any other state for that reason have to apologise for the sins of the powers to be over 200 years ago ?

Does it trully make things better with regards to race relations ? does anyone really ask that question and if so whats the answer ?

It's time to move on people, lets stop the madness with the race card ,lets start basing judgement on one's abilities and qualifications and not skin color, time to do away with this nonesence of prefered treatment for those groups who refuse to pull their own weight and trully do the right thing !

With the damm problems in this state, our legislature should be concentrating on lower taxeS, better health care and education + solid economy !!!

CK

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Its the acknowledgement and assigning accountability that I believe is the issue. Saying 'sorry' for how previous politicians and legislators actively and discriminately approved slavery and all the horrible consequences of it.

Merkt is a dick and would most 'likely' vote against assigning guilt or accountability to families and survivors of the holocaust, because it happen too long ago.

I see slavery as the single most horrific human act that destroyed unknown millions of black people on a world wide scale.

N.J. may apologize for role in slavery
Lawmakers are preparing to express "profound regret" for abuses of the past.

Fri, Jan. 4, 2008
By Lea Sitton Stanley
Philadelphia Inquirer

New Jersey, the last northern state to free its slaves, yesterday joined the list of states moving to issue regrets and apologies for slavery.

In a 10-1 vote, an Assembly committee approved a resolution that expresses "profound regret for the state's role in slavery and apologizes for the wrongs inflicted by slavery and its aftereffects." To pass, the measure would need Assembly and Senate approval by Tuesday, the end of the legislative session.

"It's a righteous thing to do, to say we are sorry for those atrocities and those abuses," Deputy Mayor Kabili Tayari of Jersey City told the committee.

But it was the apology part that got to Assemblyman Richard A. Merkt (R., Morris), who cast the lone "no" vote yesterday. He could support a resolution that simply expressed regret, he said.

"The idea of assigning guilt at this point is absurd," Merkt said, noting the ancestors of most state residents did not arrive on these shores until after slavery ended. "We're dealing with an issue that was resolved in blood 150 years go, and New Jersey spilled a lot of blood."

He added: "I would have had no problem with acknowledging the fact that it was a terrible institution."

Virginia lawmakers wrestled over saying sorry before their state became the first to approve such a resolution in February. Their original measure included an apology; the final expressed only "profound regret."

In March, Maryland lawmakers followed suit, expressing "profound regret" but not an outright apology. The North Carolina General Assembly apologized in April; Alabama legislators, in May. And in June, the Arkansas Legislative Council, which oversees legislative matters between sessions, expressed regret. Measures have been introduced elsewhere.

"This resolution does nothing more than say we're sorry for the past," Assemblyman William D. Payne (D., Essex) told the Appropriations Committee yesterday. Payne and Assemblyman Craig A. Stanley (D., Essex) sponsored the measure.

"New Jersey sanctioned and supported the institution of slavery. . . . There is much the state should atone for," Payne said.

The slave population in New Jersey climbed as high as 12,000, one of the largest in the northern colonies, the resolution states. New Jersey adopted the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, on Jan. 23, 1866 - after rejecting it March 16, 1865. According to the resolution, New Jersey was the last northern state to free slaves.

"Many people didn't know that New Jersey had slaves," Payne told reporters after the hearing.

"This state's history, its politics and its economy were tied to the South," said Lawrence Hamm, chairman of the People's Organization for Progress (POP), which supports the resolution. "We think there needs to be a real unearthing," he said, referring to New Jersey's slavery past.

Hamm told the committee that his organization, based in Newark, supported the establishment of a commission in the state to examine slavery and its fallout, and to recommend remedies.

"The vestiges of slavery still affect us today," Hamm said after the hearing, where he labeled an apology the "first of many steps."

POP, a community activist organization, supports reparations for the ills that slavery wrought, but yesterday, Hamm said that "we're not mixing apples and oranges."

Payne, when asked to comment on foes of the measure, speculated that some opponents "may be descended from some families who profited from the institution of slavery."

But Assemblyman Michael J. Doherty (R., Warren) said the measure was divisive. He abstained from casting a vote, as did Assemblywoman Marcia A. Karron (R., Hunterdon County), who could not be reached for comment.

"The ruling elite is selling out America, selling out the middle class," Doherty said. "When you have bills like this, you'll never have the black middle class working with the white middle class."

Advocates of the measure are "tools" of the ruling elite, which needs issues that keep the middle class divided, he said.

"Slavery was a tragedy," he said, explaining why he did not vote "no." "I'm glad it was ended, but I also realize what is going on."

The full Assembly is scheduled to vote on the resolution Monday. Payne said he would push to get it considered by the Senate before the legislative session ends Tuesday.

As a resolution, it serves only to express the Legislature's opinion and would not require the governor's signature.

Payne said an apology would comfort black residents, who make up 14.5 percent of New Jersey's 8.7 million residents.

Contact staff writer Lea Sitton Stanley at 215-854-2796 or lstanley@phillynews.com.

This article contains information from the Associated Press.