I bring this up beause the former group (the group I like) is against the foolish demand for slavery reparations, and the latter group (the group I intensely dislike) is insistent on those reparations, which take money from my wallet to put into the wallets of blacks in America who never saw or experienced slavery. Today, the call is for companies which were in business during the time of slavery, and which benefited from slave labor, to make reparations in the way of some sort of lump sum cash payment. In that event, however, it would be the customers of those companies who would make the payments, not the companies themselves. I am not sure which companies are targeted, but I am fairly confident that I purchase their gooda, considering the fact that they have been in business since the 1800s and, therefore, the companies are most likely quite successful and their products must be selling well and widely.

Blacks in America are the most well off of all Negro populations in the world--infinitely better off than the Negroes in Africa, the West Indies, and Latin America. And if not for the "Great Society" programs, black Americans would be in even better shape. Liberal programs designed to take from the rich to give to the poor have done nothing but keep those poor people satisfied to remain on the take, instead of capturing a piece of the American dream. Those black Americans who didn't fall for the "big brother" government ideas have managed to get their share of the American dream, including those in that first group I mentioned and millions more like them, while on the other side of the fence, exploiters like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Louis Farakhan, and others have kept their own people down by insisting that "big brother" owes them a living, taking away their incentive to make that living on their own, and expand that living to property ownership and financial independence.

Calls for slavery reparations do nothing but widen the already existing gap between black and white Americans. A student in the 1940s and 1950s, while attending integrated (racially desegregated) schools, at least in most parts of the country, did not experience gang atmosphere, and found no need to carry weapons while attending school. Sure there were hang-together groups, usually made up of members of the same race, but often made up of members of both races who shared a common denominator, usually team sports. I was one of those who "hung" with a group of guys who were on my football or track team, and most were white, although one or two of my best friends in school were black (or "colored"), but not "Afro-Americans," or "African Americans." I don't think any of their family came from Africa, going back as far as their grandparents anyway. I didn't know any of their family further back than that. I don't recall them having any less of a family life than I did, including median family incomes, and I am sure most went on to make livings for their families, as I did. Maybe they didn't get rich, although one or two of them may have. I didn't. I couldn't afford college, but I know some of my black friends went on to attend college, either through sports scholarships or because they got help from their families. Either way, opportunity was equal for us all.

Unfortunately, we cannot go back to the 1940s and 1950s, and I am afraid we can never close the gap that now exists between us. Followers of Jackson, Sharpton, Farakhan, and others of their ilk consider the likes of Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Alan Keyes, and Ward Connerly to be "Uncle Toms." They have been successful in convincing their following to believe so as well, turning them away from the message those fine gentlemen are trying to deliver to blacks--the message that hard work and personal responsibility will allow one to create a life they can be proud of and a future for themselves and their families, without dependence on big government.

If white Americans who were never slaveholders are forced to pay black Americans who were never slaves any amount at all, we are likely to see repercussions that will not be pretty. The likely confrontation between militant black groups and neo-Nazi types will make the Israeli-Palestinian conflict look like a schoolyard football play.

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