Reparations

                Reparations is a hot topic among 2020 Democratic presidential nominee contenders. This is an idea only slightly less patently absurd than the Green New Deal, which, if it was ever implemented, would literally destroy the American economy, and by extension, the world’s economy, plunging the planet into chaos and ending life on Earth as we know it.

                If the concept of reparations is to be seriously considered as a way to redress grievances and establish justice, it must be evenly applied to all those groups who have been victims in the past. First and foremost, the Ashanti tribe and the Bakongo, Mbundu, Chokwe, Igbo, Akwamu, and Fon peoples who originally enslaved and sold their fellow Africans into slavery must be held accountable and made to fork over piles of cash. Then, African-Americans need to pay the descendants of the roughly 364,000 Union soldiers who died in the fight to banish slavery from the land. No higher price can be paid than that. And what of the nearly 282,000 Union soldiers who were wounded in the titanic struggle?

                Canada needs to step up and pay the U.S. for its peerless protection all these years. If it wasn’t for America, Canadians couldn’t have been as laid back and tolerant of everything as they have had the luxury to be. Speaking of laid back, other NATO nations owe reparations to the U.S. for guaranteeing their protection at a massive discount all these years. Without kindly Uncle Sam looking out for them, they would have been just another group of Soviet SSRs.

                Speaking of which, Germany needs to pay Russia, France, England, the Low Countries and the U.S., among others, for its reprehensible actions. (Not to mention the Marshall Plan). Russia needs to, in turn, send recompense to the Baltic states, Finland, Poland and much of Eastern Europe. Japan would need to pay China, the Sioux would need to compensate the Ojibwa, the Cherokee repay the Creeks, etc., etc.

                The Blues owe the Greens, the Greens owe the Blues, the Hatfields and the McCoys will have to make things economically right between each other, Edison’s family will need to repay tesla’s clan and Sarah Jessica Parker will be expected to send some dough Kim Cattrall’s way.

                For that matter, is it too late to get the Hayasa-Azzi to pay reparations to the Hittites?

                Colleges and universities should be made to pay reparations to the conservative speakers they’ve banned or permitted to be run off their campuses, to those whose reputations they’ve libeled and trashed, and to students who have paid through the nose for educations that in no way prepare them for life outside of campus.

                Finally, the mainstream media should be made to pay President Trump, members of his administration-- and his supporters-- for two-plus years of slandering them in an orgiastic frenzy of fact-less fulmination.

                Money will be exchanged faster than at a Vegas casino, change hands quicker than at Harrah’s sports book. It will be a giant, (macro)economic version of Twister ®, as played by money-bearing folks, who, like Joe Biden, are all hands.

                The result would be chaos. And no group would truly be better off.

                Most of us so aggrieved says things like “I/we can never be repaid for this,” or “this can never be made right.”

                And then we say, “show me/us the money.”

                It would be far better if we simply moved on, made things better for ourselves and kept our credibility intact.