Is Reparations Truly The Answer?

     The American Heritage Dictionary defines reparations as, "Compensation or remuneration required from a defeated nation as indemnity for damage or injury during a war." When blacks ask for reparations, they want money today for what their ancestors were made to endure as slaves in this country. Do they honestly believe this is the answer? Would this systematically end all race-related strife in this country? I think we all are mature enough to acknowledge the answer to this is a resounding "NO!"
     Slavery was an evil thing, yes, but the white man cannot be blamed for this, at least, not as the sole proponents. Slavery began in the Caribbean, where dark-skinned land-owners would travel to Africa and pay the tribal chieftans handsomely for "x" amount of his people, and when the chieftans were met with resistance from their own people he would send them to neighboring tribes, have them kidnap those other tribesmen, and bring them back to be sold into slavery.
     The white (english, spanish, dutch, etc.) businessmen from America and Europe eventually made their way to the Caribbean where they became the barons of the slave trade and took these imprisoned people back to their respective countries and forced them into lifelong servitude. Yes, it happened, yes, it was horrible, but I had nothing to do with it.
     There were organizations that attempted to buy back the freedom of these slaves and relocate them back to Africa (the country of Liberia is an example of this) just as there were organizations dedicated to keeping blacks in their submissive state through bullying tactics, intimidation, mental, physical, and emotional abuse as well as outright killing, but I had nothing to do with that.
     There are many, many blacks who are so mistrustful of whites, expectant of assistance from whites, hate whites because of what slavery did to this country, but I had nothing to do with that. In fact, no white person today had anything to do with what happened in this nation's historic past. It was indeed a bad time, and it was indeed a terrible thing, but it's time to get over it.
     Blacks cannot continue to live in the past, and paying them for how horribly their ancestors suffered will not automatically remove the words honky, cracker, etc. from their vocabulary, and we all know this. "X" dollars in the pocket of every black person in this country as reparations paid by the government will not cause every African-American heart to give way to love and mutual respect for white people. Reparations is nothing more than just another in a long series of free rides when the freest ride of all is continuously ignored: You have the same opportunity as everyone else in this country. The American Dream is alive and well, it just takes hard work in acheiving it. Use it. Become what your parents were unable to become, and blaze a path that will allow your children to become that which you were unable to become, as I do with my children.
     Reparations, affirmative action, racism, prejudice...it all needs to stop. So, do you break the cycle of allow it to continue. Remember, it was Maya Angelou who said, "Not having is no reason for not getting."