LONG OVER-DUE, AND I THINK IT'S NOT ENOUGH.
Well, it seems Congress has finally decided this country needs to apologize for an incredibly corrupt, brutal, and cruel chapter in American history--that of slavery, and also the Jim Crow-era laws which segregated black people, and deliberately discriminated against them.
How do make peace with a people from whom you stole family members away into chains, starvation, thirst, and torture? For those who survived, generations of them worked for no money or reward, and their families were broken apart and sold off, just like livestock. And the selling? They were "auctioned" off while being put through indignities like standing naked in front of hundreds, perhaps thousands of other people(mostly slave-owners, and their families) while being prodded and pulled, their teeth checked, etc...They all eventually faced beatings, and the women faced horrific repeated rapes, children were bought so they could be molested, and lynchings of black men were common. All this is well-documented.
To those of you who say well, my family immigrated here later, we never had anything to do with that, I say:
This country offered us all a lot of opportunity for business, creativity, and wealth--earned, and inherited, precisely because the slaveowners' and this country(government) made progress and lots of dollars on the backs of these African-Americans...
An apology is a start, and it is incalculable what is actually owed to the African-Americans today, who still suffer the effects of this awful legacy. But I think some sort of reparations should be made available. No amount of money in the world could ever make up for what happened to these people, but a tidy sum ought to be made available to any black family who descended from slavery, money to put towards an education that they were denied not for years, but for centuries; money to build ownership in land which they were not permitted to own; money for their children's children's children, for these children won't be auctioned and sold off.
These children deserve a chance, and they deserve our heartfelt apology. And some cash, too.

See article about the apology Congress is offering, below:
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WASHINGTON (CNN) --
The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a resolution apologizing to African-Americans for slavery and the era of Jim Crow.

The House on Tuesday evening passed a resolution apologizing for slavery and Jim Crow laws.
The nonbinding resolution, which passed on a voice vote, was introduced by Rep. Steve Cohen, a white lawmaker who represents a majority black district in Memphis, Tennessee.
While many states have apologized for slavery, it is the first time a branch of the federal government has done so, an aide to Cohen said.
In passing the resolution, the House also acknowledged the "injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow."
"Jim Crow," or Jim Crow laws, were state and local laws enacted mostly in the Southern and border states of the United States between the 1870s and 1965, when African-Americans were denied the right to vote and other civil liberties and were legally segregated from whites.
The name "Jim Crow" came from a character played by T.D. "Daddy" Rice who portrayed a slave while in blackface during the mid-1800s.
The resolution states that "the vestiges of Jim Crow continue to this day."
"African-Americans continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow -- long after both systems were formally abolished -- through enormous damage and loss, both tangible and intangible, including the loss of human dignity and liberty, the frustration of careers and professional lives, and the long-term loss of income and opportunity," the resolution states.
The House also committed itself to stopping "the occurrence of human rights violations in the future."
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The resolution does not address the controversial issue of reparations. Some members of the African-American community have called on lawmakers to give cash payments or other financial benefits to descendents of slaves as compensation for the suffering caused by slavery.
It is not the first time lawmakers have apologized to an ethnic group for injustices.
In April, the Senate passed a resolution sponsored by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, that apologized to Native Americans for "the many instances of violence, maltreatment and neglect."
In 1993 the Senate also passed a resolution apologizing for the "illegal overthrow" of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893.
In 1988, Congress passed and President Reagan signed an act apologizing to the 120,000 Japanese-Americans who were held in detention camps during World War II. The 60,000 detainees who were alive at the time each received $20,000 from the government.
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Peace, kids.

I RECEIVED THIS FROM MY DEAR PAL, REGINALD T. JACKSON. This article is from an uncredited source, but certainly worth a reprint, right here.Read on!
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Subject: Michelle Obama connects the dots..."from Selma to Stonewall."

The World As It Should Be: What Michelle Really Said
Words matter, and Michelle Obama is a woman of powerful words.
Last night, in a passionate address to the Democratic National Committee's Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council, Mrs. Obama delivered a rousing call-to-equality and put her husband on record as a fighter for the full equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. "Barack believes," she said, "that we must fight for the world as it should be, a world where we work together to reverse discriminatory laws."
Invoking "those who marched and bled and died, from Selma to Stonewall," Michelle implored Democrats to continue those early crusaders' march "in the pursuit of a more perfect union."
And it was unions, no doubt, that were on the minds of the LGBT audience that Michelle was reaching out to. With marriages under way in California, and a national debate about marriage equality for all couples taking place in living rooms and legislatures from coast to coast, many in the gay community are looking and listening to see if Obama will stand up strongly for our families or allow the country to be divided and conquered over the issue once again.
The question, for many gay voters, boils down to whether the Obamas can change the tone of the conversation, within the country and the party, about what it means to be equal and free?
According to Michelle, yes, they can.
Within her remarks to the GLCC last night, Mrs. Obama shared an extraordinary insight into the Obama campaign's respect for same-sex couples that set Senator Obama apart from almost any other Democratic lawmaker in the country . . . and certainly apart from any other nominee.
The Associated Press, using the creative and unfortunate powers of the editing pen, reported that Mrs. Obama told the crowd on Thursday evening that, "states should make their own decisions on the matter" of marriage and civil unions. But in fact, she went progressively further. What she actually said was that states should "decide for themselves how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples -- whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union, or a civil marriage. "
She did not endorse the option to simply push any form of recognition to the side.
Those remarks are a far cry - and light years ahead - of the characterization that AP used in its reporting. Indeed, it's the (very significant) difference between hiding behind states rights and calling on states to do the right thing.
Michelle Obama's words should also set the campaign apart from the GOP for gay voters who have openly raised concerns about Senator Obama's lack of a track record on our issues. As Senator McCain endorses a divisive anti-marriage amendment in California, Senator Obama and his wife have taken the latest, meaningful in that march that began in Selma and Stonewall.
"The world as it is should be one that rejects discrimination of all kinds," Michelle Obama told the DNC. And, she made clear, should be one that embraces families of all kinds, too.
"A world that recognizes that equality in relationship, family, and adoption rights is not some abstract principle," she declared, "it's about whether millions of LGBT Americans can finally live lives marked by dignity and freedom. "
"[I]t's not just about the positions you take, it's also about the leadership you provide," she told the crowd at the DNC.
Words are powerful, and on Thursday, Michelle Obama was a woman of much more powerful words than the media is giving her credit for.
Can the LGBT community take heart in the leadership Michelle brings, and in the words she says?
Yes, I think, we certainly can.
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I am going to meditate, and pray on, what I personally can do, to help in the acceptance of LGBT folks by the rest of society. And it's not just acceptance we deserve, but true inclusion.
Peace, kids.