Reparation

Reparation

Reparations, lately this has been an issue of concern. If you go by the definition; it is the act of making amends for a wrong or injury to someone. Now how the amends are done depends on your view, your race, your political view and where you stand on this subject. In a since, this is righting a wrong. But who has been wrong, when did it happen and who has to pay for it? Did the wrong happen in a moment of rage or a misunderstanding? Did it happen to one person or a group/race of people? When did it happen and what was the outcome of it?

Let’s get one thing straight, there is a difference between when someone is committing a crime and when someone is committing a wrong. When someone commits a crime, it goes against a set of laws, rules, ethics and etc. that people put down on paper to follow. When someone or government commits a wrong, it falls into a category of morals, ethics and sometimes unknowns. When something goes wrong and no one never thought of it or new it, you cannot blame anyone. But when someone or government knows it is wrong or bad you can blame someone or a government. Just like when the gaskets on the Space Shuttle booster rocket that failed and the shuttle craft blew up, people knew about this issue and still let it be launched.

Righting a wrong sometimes is worse than the wrong itself and can leads us down a bad path. Not all wrongs need to be vindicated or have justice applied. But they do need to be understand because it is like the difference between a mistake and a problem. A mistake is a wrong that happens every now and then, we all make them. But if you learn from that mistake, it probably will not happen again or for a long time. Sometimes that mistake does and will need amends for it. But when a mistake becomes a problem or a criminal action, it is when someone or a government keep doing the same mistake over and over again without trying to fix it or learn from it. (Crime, Drugs, National Debt, corruption)

The old adage: an eye for an eye does not solve the problem and is not justice, either way the outcome is not good. Who pays for the wrong and when? Who should pay for that wrong and is there a time limit when reparations can be applied? When the wrong that happen, the who, what, where and how should apply on who should pay for it. When the person or persons that is paying for it was not involved with it when it happens or was even born, is this right. What about those people that just got used/penalized and had to pay for those reparation, do these people get reparation too from the next generation of people?

Let’s take slavery for example, this happen over 100’s years ago and now some people think and expect they should be compensated for that because their family was a slave. But did it ever occur to them that if their past family was not a slave, they would not be here. They are here because their family was a slave. I am not supporting slavery on anything else along those lines, but it did happen and now deal with it, it was a way of life and slavery still goes on today. Just like the Native Americans and how they were treated, it was not good, and we are still dealing with it and it is destroying this country. A lot of good and bad things happen in building this country, but it is what built this country and help get us here today. So, in many ways be thankful that it all happens, the good and bad.

A lot of people have made an issue of the way the Japanese people were treated after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. We put a lot of them in internment camps after the attacks. Some people think we owe them because of what we did, BS. Has anyone ever thought of the good that happen because we did that. Ever wonder how many of those Japanese people would have been killed by vigilante groups after the attacks if we did not put them in internment camps for their safety. Ever wonder how many of them meet someone, got married and had children because they were in those internment camps. A lot of good did come out of that, but you have to look for it.

What about the wars this country has been in from the Revolutionary War to the wars we are in today and going to be in. What about the Vietnam War and the Agent Orange issue? What about the Afghanistan War and the people with PTSD? Are those people getting all the reparation they should? You can always find a wrong that happen to someone or a group if you look hard enough. But both sides need to get real objective about the problem and learn to look beyond it. Whining about it may or may not get you anything, just like the squeaky wheel always get the grease, but the other wheels need grease too.

In conclusion, for whatever the reason is, someone or a government is always trying to take money out of your economy and put it in their economy. Working together for a better world is what we are supposed to be doing, not trying to rape each other.
R. Fleharty