I'm outside of NYC right now, but been running around and getting work done. In the meantime check out this brief interview on DailyKos. The interview was done virtually with David Boyle who has developed a the site called Obamaism.org. Check it out and leave a comment.
3 comments:
i enjoyed it as always :-)
cool interview dumi,
i couldnt seem to get a comment in on Mr. Boyle's article so ill weigh down your blog again :P
anyway, what i think Mr. Boyle was terming "reperations" for tribes is actually an acknowledgement of treaty obligations. Most recognized tribal sovereign nations traded massive parcels of land in exchange for the promise of medical care and education. (or some variation) These, mostly, created massive bureaucracies that kept much of that aide from actually reaching the people. To my knowledge, no money has been placed in the hands of a tribe to apologize for past wrongs. Only by irrefutable legal documentation are the tribes able to gain funds and only through HORRIBLE bureacracy and by toeing the government line.
those communities that have reaped economic benefit from casinos and the like have not become a utopia of native prosperity... what do you think comes from well funded boredom? ever watched what an 18 year old does with $100 that he didnt have to work for? try $70,000/year.
I would be careful what you wish for. if the US Gov mailed checks to every person that was maliciously wronged during this country's history you would be looking at disaster.
Now, if you are talking reperations in the form of sweeping educational reform, scholarships, community reintegration programs (ie, send kids to college and BRING THEM BACK TO HELP THIER COMMUNITY), access to healthcare, behavioral health, anncillary care, disability and handicapped assistance, elderly assistance, business loans, economic assistance, housing etc etc etc. you might be better off. however, these programs are just as susceptible to corruption and cronieism as all the others have proven to be.
a fair and just way to distribute "reperations" to all those that diserve them would be a complex problem to solve. (tax holiday does very little to help the unemployed, under employed, disabled etc.)
I think the best thing the government could do would be to acknowledge past wrongs and the despair it has brought about for so many, and set aside grant endowments with the names of what they are trying to repay on them. a rotating board of grant reviewers choose programs and institutions with stated missions of providing some good and a proven ability to do so (maybe limit to medical, behavioral and educational?) to the target community to fund for a set number of years. No indians or whites allowed on the board deciding on who gets the grants for boarding school reperations. no blacks or whites on the board deciding who gets the grants for slavery reperations.
more random ideas on how to at least begin to address complex issues. Obama would be a fool (politically) to bring it up before he is elected, the word reperations sends some running for the hills and as you said, post election, politicians tend to shy away from contentious issues even AFTER they have won. id definately be down to join a grassroots movements to prod him if we could come to an agreement on what we need to push for.
Andrew- Interesting comments on reparations. I'm most intrigued by your suggestion of removing the offending and offended from the oversight committees of these reparation grants. I see a couple of major issues with this: 1) Objectivity, as it's defined in western "science" and "law" would be the truest enemy of reparations. Having those who were most affected could probably provide the strongest standpoint for identifying programs that may actually affect the target communities. 2) Wouldn't grants privilege those with the most resources and leave the most marginalized out? Unless we truly expect folks with the means to effectively design and implement programs for the most oppressed. Not sure if those made sense, but those were two thoughts that came to my head. There are plenty of other things that came up too but that's all I'll mention. Oh, well actually I will mention that I'm sad Sho'Nuff died after I suggested him for a cabinet position. :(
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