RE:May 24th here I go again...

Just wanted to follow up and say that I think I may have actually said all that I had needed to the other day. I am so tied up with school right now that I can not even think about what I had wanted to say wayyy back then!! Like a week ago is sooo long but for me right now yesterday was forever ago. I am taking two new courses again (courses only last 9 weeks) I have a racial ethics class and a environmental science class. I think that I am going to have problems in my ethics class. First of all I think I am the only white person in class and other than that the class is fairly well diversified. My problem comes in later this week when we start getting into reparations for families of former slaves....I am sorry but as far as I know the last person who was a slave is no longer alive and no one alive owned a slave. My family was share croppers and for those who do not know what that was it means my family was white slaves almost like an indentured servant but out in the fields and there was not a time limit on how long they would be serving for. My great great grandmother who was alive until I was seven delivered the babies for the slaves and handled a lot of their medical care as well. I remember a story my mom told me about when she was a manager for a large company and was filling in for some one on the production line. She was working next to a large black man ( I do not know where his ancestors or he was from so I use black as a general term here describing his skin tone not in anyway derogatory as I really did like this man) While she was working along side of him she was singing a song that randomly popped into her head, one that her grandmother had taught her. "jump down turn a round pick a bale of cotton jump down turn around pick a bale a day" and kept working and singing to herself. the man stopped working and turned to her and said that if anyone had stood next to him and sang that he would have been offended. My mother asked why she did not know that it was an old slave song. the very next time she spoke to mammaw ( her grandmother and my great grandmother) she asked her where she learned that song from and was told about her early years as the child of share croppers. She had learned that song and many others from picking cotton in the fields along side the slaves. So please please please tell me how my family should be forced to pay money to the families of people who they worked with? It seems to me like if some one feels they are being held back over their race and they sue the company for it and the company cuts every ones pay to pay for the law suite then I am paying for something that I had no part in. That is how i feel about reparations to the family of former slaves. if my family help to birth the babies and give general medical care and worked side by side with them then how can I be made to pay their families grrrr frustrating...I know that this is just a concept but it is what it is. I also look at how my ancestors were treated. I have a strong Indian background and Irish background. We were all taught in school about how the Indians were rounded up and moved into reservations well we were taught that they had a choice which is not how it was but OK so be it we are taught that Thanksgiving is a joyous time of celebration. It is not it marks the beginning of the end of the Indian. The accept the white man and then the "white man" takes them over, rounds them up and try to make them assimilate to their culture. Now there are no full blooded Indians left and by 2100 it is assumed that the Indian race will be so mixed as to not even be an option any more on the race selection forms. As for the Irish part of me I heard the stories from my great grand father about sins in store windows saying Irish need not apply. And how the Irish were deemed inferior to the people who were then living in this country. Yes we learned that in school but rarely if at all were we taught that the Irish were bought and sold as slaves as well. I had another though as i was writing this out: For country that was "founded" live liberty and the pursuit of happiness by people fleeing from religious persecution why is there a debate about changing out pledge of allegiance and removing in God we trust from our money? To satisfy a small group of people who may be offended by God?? Why is it OK for a Muslim to drop to their knees and pray Allah in school but we are shunned for folding our hands and offering a prayer to God? We can not offer a moment of silence for the death of a classmate or a teacher because it may infringe upon some one Else's right to not have to pray. I would never push my beliefs on some one else. But as long as i am an American I have a right to those beliefs. I have a right to hang Christmas lights on my home or in my windows, just as some one who is Jewish has a right to place giant menorah on their lawn. some one who celebrates Kwanzaa can have their representation As well. If you do not like it then don't look. If you are offended by freedom of religion and the rights to express it then no one is keeping you here in this country. YOU ARE FREE TO LEAVE!! You have the right to leave because people a long time ago fled here to give you that right. Just like if you do not support the soldiers the men and women out there fighting to keep this country safe. They fight so that you can sit here on your comfy chair or go out in public and hold your signs saying that war is wrong. If you lived in another country you would be shot for voicing your opinion. If you do not stand behind them then feel free to stand in front of them! I have seen that a lot recently on bumper stickers,t-shirts, and on line in various forums. I totally agree and If you do not like what I have to say then do not read it. if that is not good enough for you then go to a place where people are only allowed to have the same views as you. No one is keeping you from leaving this great country. If it is so bad here then leave! This idea also goes for all those who are felt they are owed something from the people here. If your family was a slave and you feel this country owes you something and you are not being treated fairly (not talking about if you are having your rights violated or really are not being treated fairly) feel free to go back to the places that your families come from. I know that I would not stop you!