Can America ever truly pay for its sins?

[T.J.]

When I mention sins I'm talking about the fact that hundreds of years ago the people who came to this country slaughtered the people who were here first and took their land. Later they enslaved the blacks, treated women like property and wouldn't even allow them to vote until as soon as 1920. Sending the Japanese people into camps after the attack at Pearl Harbor. And I'm sure the list just gets bigger and bigger.

Is there anyway for America to truly confront its past and change for the better or is it just too great a wound to heal?

Discuss.

[Anomalocaris]

Do most countries/people who boast some reasonably durable success ever seriously pay for the sins committed in achieving that success?

Progress is built on unpaid sins.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

$50 should cover it.

Boru

[Jehanne]

When I mention sins I'm talking about the fact that hundreds of years ago the people who came to this country slaughtered the people who were here first and took their land. Later they enslaved the blacks, treated women like property and wouldn't even allow them to vote until as soon as 1920. Sending the Japanese people into camps after the attack at Pearl Harbor. And I'm sure the list just gets bigger and bigger.

Is there anyway for America to truly confront its past and change for the better or is it just too great a wound to heal?

Discuss.

I don't think that the leftist faculty at UC Berkeley is as radical as your post implies that you are.

United States history has to be seen in the context of World history; prior to 1960, nearly everyone was an asshole.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

When I mention sins I'm talking about the fact that hundreds of years ago the people who came to this country slaughtered the people who were here first and took their land. Later they enslaved the blacks, treated women like property and wouldn't even allow them to vote until as soon as 1920. Sending the Japanese people into camps after the attack at Pearl Harbor. And I'm sure the list just gets bigger and bigger.

Is there anyway for America to truly confront its past and change for the better or is it just too great a wound to heal?

Discuss.

That is a complex question for which I can offer little.   How could this be done, and by whom?  Do you accept guilt or responsibilities for the crimes committed by others, including  your ancestors?  I don't.

Australia still has a problem with indigenous Australians.  Crimes against those people began on first contact. Australia was considered Terra Nullius by the British. IE uninhabited. No one knows how many indigenous people there were on first contact. Estimates vary between 300,000 and 3 million. Aboriginal Australians were not even counted in the census until 1963.Officially, they were fauna.

The last recorded time  Australian aborigines were hunted and killed for sport was in the 1920's.

The Australian Government took mixed race children from their aboriginal parents until the 1970's. Those children were forbidden to speak their own language, educated as white kids and trained for menial jobs.

On February 2008, our then Prime Minister  Kevin Rudd ,gave a formal apology on behalf of the nation for "the stolen generations".
 I did not and do not feel guilty fort those crimes. I do accept that Indigenous Australians have suffered great wrongs and we should do what we can to make sure they are treated as justly as any other Australians.

One set of figures leads me to think we may have some way to go:  Currently, indigenous Australians make up 3% of our total population. They make up 29% of our total prison population.

IMO Australia has far too many sins of its own to point the finger at anyone else.

[AFTT47]

Tribes ALL suck. The very concept sucks. Still, tribes such as nations-states exist for the present. They should be as good as they can and progress as much as they can. It is somewhat pointless to focus on sins of the past.

[Fireball]

When I mention sins I'm talking about the fact that hundreds of years ago the people who came to this country slaughtered the people who were here first and took their land. Later they enslaved the blacks, treated women like property and wouldn't even allow them to vote until as soon as 1920. Sending the Japanese people into camps after the attack at Pearl Harbor. And I'm sure the list just gets bigger and bigger.

Is there anyway for America to truly confront its past and change for the better or is it just too great a wound to heal?

Discuss.

I don't think that the leftist faculty at UC Berkeley is as radical as your post implies that you are.

United States history has to be seen in the context of World history; prior to 1960, nearly everyone was an asshole.

I'm not sure that "nearly" applies.  I will say that as a late arrival to the US (my forbears migrated to the US from Canada in the early 1900s, and they migrated to Canada in the 1880s from France, or just generally northern and western Europe), I have no stake in the slavery issue in terms of guilt.

EVERY country is guilty of something, so maybe just call all that shit quits, but start treating more people more fairly?

[brewer]

Nope, America will never improve. Better get out while you can.

[Foxaire]

Nope, America will never improve. Better get out while you can.

Working on it.

[onlinebiker]

Somebody is always getting fucked over.


Stick around long enough and your group - whatever it is - will get a hard high one right up the ass.


No lube.