Dear Source:
I remain confused about the logic behind any group seeking slavery reparations from those who were involved in the slave traffic of over 300 years ago for the benefit of the present-day descendants of those slaves.
Of course the slave trade was barbaric but history resounds with man's barbaric acts again his fellow man, and surely, in this case in point, the African leaders who sold their own into slavery are just as culpable as those who made the purchases? Every person on this earth is born into a relatively short life. Some are destined through sheer circumstance to live gilded lives of good fortune with nary a major care and others are born to and remain in abject poverty for that life's duration and then there's the majority of inbetweens of all shapes and colors.
There is still huge and barbaric man-to-man inhumanity going on in today's world and unfortunately it will always be so because unfortunately the nature of man is to mark his territory and fight for the borders whether the "cause" be simply land borders, religious/tribal differences or a combination of both.
What I think we should all be doing is concentrating on educating our children so that they can read, write and articulate, nurturing the inquisitive minds with which they're born and giving them the tools they need to WANT to learn and better themselves throughout their lives via knowledge of our vast world, its inhabitants and its history.
I'd rather see the time and money-seeking reparations for the wrongdoings of 300 years ago better spent on what I think is the more important issue of education.
Anna Clarke
St. Thomas
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