Reparations

The two articles we read were two people's points of veiw on reparations to black people whos ancestors were slaves. In the first article the author Mark Brown, a Sun Times columnist. His main point in his article is that people think of slavery being something in ancient history but in reality it is only a few generations away from us. He went through his family tree and discovered that his family owned slaves at one point. He does not believe he owes anyone money for what his "great-great-great-great-grandfather" did. The other article "The Case for Reparations" the author is Charles j. Ogletree jr. This author believes in reparations for blacks whos ancestors were slaves. He believes that the reparations made should not be "in the form of individual checks." but rather in communities where "damage has been most severe."

Out of these two articles i most agree with the second article. I believe there should be some type of reparations for people whos ancestors were slaves. I dont think that all white people whos ancestors owned slaves should have to write a check to a black person whos ancestor were slaves but rather there should be donations from anyone who would like to contribute. The money should go into rebuilding poor black communities becaus they are the ones who need money. In the second article the author says the money should benifit poor people not "the Tiger Woodses and Oprah Winfreys." I also believe that money shouldnt be the only type of reparations. Things such as afermative action allows more black people to get into college allowing them to have more job oppertunities and financial success.

The Glory of War

Sometime this weekend i was watching a show on the History Channel called Dog Fights. The show is not about dogs fighting rather the term used to describe air plane battles. This episode of the show was about kamakazi pilots in world war two. Kamakazi pilots were pilots whos missions were suicide plane bombings. The pilots would fly their planes into aircraft carriers destroying the ship and potentailly killing many. While watching the show i was wondering what in the world would compell people to do this. There were people on the show being interveiwed who were kamakazi escorts. Their job was to fly with the kamakazis and protect them from being shot down befor hitting their target. The escorts described the job of a kamakazi was the most honerable job in the war. I thought this related to the movie we watched in class. In the movie the 54th regiment was going into battle and they knew the majority of the men were going to die. Even though they knew they were going to die they marched to battle because they believed they were dying honerably for something they believed in and fought for. Im not sure i could ever be as brave as these men in either situation but what pushes someone to feel so strongly about something they are willing to die for it?