Reparations, Isreal and the New Black Panther Party Case

The WaPo has posted an article that basically says that there is nothing to the voter intimdation case against the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia.  The gist of the entire article is that it's much ado over nothing despite video evidence that something untoward was happening.




...in the comments

thedefendantX wrote:

"The government is paying for past transgressions whether we like it or not, NYY80401, even paying for the crimes of our former adversaries like Germany, in grants to Israel of $3 billion a year of our money!! What do I or other Americans owe Israel?"Especially since I, not being Jewish, don't claim it as my promised land, and I doggone sure don't want Israelis considering this country as a cash cow for their promised land over there. Frankly, m'dear, when it comes to Israel and the Middle Eastern countries, I could give a good d..n! I'm not from there, I don't have relatives over there or from there, and frankly, their dispute is none of my business. As a disinterested observer, it seems to me that Israel and a number of Arab countries, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Syria and even Iraq and Iran have a lot in common, a shared history and they ought to find common ground to live in peace. I wish them well, but I don't want to pay them billions of dollars to bribe them to do what they one day will see that they must do without my tax money. Stop paying them money. We didn't commit genocide. Germany did. Let's help Americans. Let's put the Black Panthers in remedial ed classes, not prisons.


10/22/2010 11:54:36 PM                               Recommend (1) Report Abuse Discussion Policy

Here's my response:

Well then DefendantX, you owe wergeld for the lives of my great-great-great-great grandfather and his four brothers who were killed at the Battle of Peachtree Creek, while serving in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Intantry. They died to free the slaves and the descendants of every single freed slave thus must pay reparations for their deaths...

That's just how silly you sound. If the US Gov't pays reparations, then every single descendant of those men and women who were freed must pay for the deaths of those men and women who paid the ultimate price for their freedom.

Seriously though. Let's look at this thing from another angle. If white men had dressed in white robes and stood at a polling place what would the media be saying. The exact same laws that were set aside in case would rightly be used to place (any such idiot who would do such a thing) into the deepest darkest hole America has. They would deserve it. America has no place for thugs, regarless of tint of skin, to "guard" a polling place.

That being said, "rule of law" is a cornerstone of our democracy. When the public begins to lose faith in those agencies who are supposed to enforce the rule of law, then our democracy will begin to fail. A significant portion of our populace is beginning to ask questions of how the Dept of Justice actually works...and the lens is showing something not exactly kosher...

This story is a whitewash...written with a particular agenda in mind. It's up to you to decide through the lens of your preconceptions what that agenda is. Once upon a time, a very wise old and retired Jesuit Priest told me, "Truth is a matter of perception." What YOU preceive to be the truth and what I do can be very different things...

Rich Vail

The government owes us nothing but a safe environment in which "...life, liberty and the pursuit of hapiness" are possible.  Nothing more, nothing less.