Saturday, May 2, 2009
An insincere apology
In his recent letter to your paper, Rep. Rob Schaaf defended his depiction of Medicaid as a government-based enslavement of taxpayers, and indicated that members of the Black Caucus were offended by the comparison.
I am not a member of the Black Caucus. I also was offended by Rep. Schaaf's remarks, as was every person who is familiar with the historical reality of American slavery, regardless of their color or political affiliation.
To reduce the institution of slavery to a merely economic system is to revise history in an intolerable way, and to do so on the House floor is something more than offensive. American slavery was the systematic, state-sanctioned dehumanization, rape, torture and murder of an entire people, lasting several centuries and impacting millions of lives.
In the Middle Passage, slaves were put into chains, loaded into the fetid and cramped holds of ships, given inadequate food and water and, if they managed to survive the trip, had their surviving children and their spouses ripped from them and sold into a lifetime of abuse and powerlessness.
Slavery was more than an economic system, and to ignore that is to trivialize both the suffering of people sold into slavery and the sacrifices made by abolitionists and others to end the institution. It is patently offensive to do so anywhere, but to do so on the floor of the house is intolerable. Rep. Schaaf owes the entire General Assembly, as well as the people of the state of Missouri, an apology.
I understand that paying taxes is no one's favorite pastime. I understand that investing those taxes in programs that allow children to receive health care is not a priority of the Republican majority. However, children's health care is not a moral or economic equivalent to slavery.
I acknowledge that on April 28, Rep. Schaaf apologized for offending the body, though he did not apologize for his actual comments. The best demonstration of sincere regret is to cease the offending behavior.
Find a new metaphor, Rep. Schaaf.
Rep. Beth Low
D-Kansas City, District 39
***
One last thank you
One last thank you to Pete, Pam Minor and staff of the D&G for all the great meals and excellent service over the years. We will miss your food, service and friendly atmosphere and especially the scrappy beef with hot cheese on sourdough bread with a plateful of hot fries. Yum-Yum.
Also, thank you for your donations of your remaining inventories to Second Harvest of Greater St. Joseph.
Cliff and Barb Seckinger
St. Joseph
Share Your Thoughts
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wr49tm says...
Thank you for showing your true ignorance Beth Low. Glad you don't represent my district.
May 2, 2009 at 7:22 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
77cod says...
It is not about slavery or race !! Quit the political stuff and let people speak and talk. We live in a country that is free and yet we are afraid to say or speak our mind. Rep Schaaf was not talking about slavery to condone or demean or whatever. Come on get off the race thing if you want this country to move on. I don't see you criticizing (nor the so called black caucus ) the rantings and attacks the Reverend White exposed about our country and white people. Do we have a double standard???
May 2, 2009 at 8:06 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dalearch says...
I am so sick of hearing the blacks whine about the past.
From now on I want to be called Irish-American. I also want reparations since my ancestors were forced into slavery when they came to America.
Come to think of it, I'm going to petition the Irish government for reparations since my ancestors were enslaved there also.
First by the Celts, then by Romans, Angles, Saxons, Danes & Normans. Gee, I should have a lot of reparation money coming.
I spent two years working in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon & The Congo in West Africa. I've had malaria. I've seen how people live in grass huts & have watched the natives pick up bugs from the ground and eat them. I've eaten monkey roasted over a fire because that was all there was to eat.
I'm not suggesting that blacks had it easy as slaves, but if I had to choose between living as a slave in America and living in Africa, I sure as Hell wouldn't live in Africa.
May 2, 2009 at 8:39 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
heritage_sarahhochschwender says...
rep low, is this how we all come together? what is it with you KC people and joetown?
May 2, 2009 at 8:40 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
pops says...
This is just another individual showing an exceptional desire to be politically correct. Dr. Shaaf said NOTHING along the lines he's been accused of. Ms. Low's letter is offensive, in my opinion, by continuing to highlight and emphasize racial differences.
May 2, 2009 at 8:41 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
TheShadow says...
Rep. Low is a great example of what is wrong in politics today. While I don't agree with everythn Schaff does or says, to think that he was making a racist comment is ridiculous. It's just an excuse to waste time instead of govern. She needs to grow up and do her job.
May 2, 2009 at 9:36 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
scrubnurse says...
I am sure that Rob meant nothing by it a few years ago, when he addressed members of the Black Caucas by calling them "you people" either. He needs to think before he speaks!
May 2, 2009 at 10:44 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dalearch says...
Michael:
The blacks in Africa still sell one another into slavery between tribes.
When I worked there we had armed agents/translators in each country. One of their rules that they stressed the most is that none of us (the people I worked with) ever wander off on our own without one of them. This is partly due to the wild animals in the jungle, but also because the Africans will kidnap people of any color and sell them.
May 2, 2009 at 11:34 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
MODem says...
I believe these are the most vitriolic comments I have ever seen on these boards.
Talk of spades and hoes! Calling a congress woman those names is beyond embarrassment for the people of St. Joe.
Saying being a slave was a much better existence than living in ones own country
that so many Africans were whisked away from, to be looked upon like less than an
animal or maybe the equivalent of a rat or a rodent. Chained for months in ships to live in one's own vomit and excrement, only to be sold like a dog into ownership by others for the use and abuse by the buyers. Spouses and children sold to others. Daughters and wives raped. Whipping and humiliation and unlimited work put upon them by their masters, forced to give up their own religions to convert to Christianity and to change their foreign names to those of their masters.
Really sounds like a lot of fun to me. I wish upon all those that think this would be a great life to have to go through what they had to endure, and still have the same love of America as we lily whites do because our lives have been pretty darn good.
Please people read some history or watch some historically correct biographies
like Roots. Maybe you can get a little perspective about what African Americans have endured in this country and why some may be a little angry .
May 3, 2009 at 12:25 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
simlay says...
In another episode of government imitating fantasy, Rep Beth Low, Democrat-Kansas City District 39 raises the ante to new levels. She raises slavery to the level of an institution. In doing so, she gives legitimacy to every aspect of slavery. So now, we must go back and undo everything that Congress did to abolish slavery because now it is an institution. It now stands on equal footing with the Supreme Court, the National Endowment for the Arts, and many other long-standing institutions of our country. She has narrowed the meaning of slavery. It can now only be used in reference to the capture, detention, rape, murder, torture, and forced servitude of people of African descent. Now since it has been raised to an institution, all of these people of African descent need to be captured, chained and returned to their rightful place within the institution of slavery.
Note to Rep. Beth Low: Slavery comes in many forms. Indentured servants enslaved themselves in hopes of gaining a future that they did not have in England. Many of them died in their enslavement just like many African slaves. Women and girls are kidnapped everyday and sold into slavery as sex slaves to people who are supposed to be our allies. Many people in this and other countries are enslaved by international drug cartels every day. They cannot kick the drug that enslaves them and their dealers are not willing to free them. Governments try, convict and imprison people everyday putting them to forced slave labor. Governments levy taxes against their citizens every year and the citizens do not have the freedom to refuse payment without being tried, convicted and imprisoned. Slavery has been practiced for centuries, long before African tribesmen were captured by rival tribes and sold to Dutch traders as slaves. Slavery has been practiced in Egypt, Rome, China, Mongolia, Europe, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and many other places throughout the history of the world. Therefore, blacks do not have a universal claim on slavery and Democrats have no right to sanctimonious outrage at the use of the word in any context. In fact, many of these outraged Democrats need to research their own family trees to see if their ancestors were slave owners themselves before they become outraged over words spoken by someone else. Of course all of this posturing by politicians is for show and votes.
In fifty-five years, I have never met one single black American who has ever been a slave, except maybe to sex, drugs, alcohol or some gang they have joined. My Scottish ancestors suffered under the tyranny of English Kings but you will not find me crying "poor me" and blaming my lot in life on some English nobleman who died four hundred years before I was born. Good grief people "Get a Real Life". You are worse than a bunch of Trekkies and Potterheads.
With all due cynicism,
May 3, 2009 at 1:12 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
MODem says...
That us why it will be so cooolllll that in a few years us pure whites will be the minority in America, I can't wait!!! maybe then us lilies will be able to experience the other side!!
May 3, 2009 at 1:17 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
MODem says...
Dear Micheal you are a wimp who should give it up!!! A coward like you would be hiding in the deepest of swamps when push comes to shove, those of your kind would hide under your mattress in really scary times. Wimps always shout loudest and longest and hide behind big guns they pretend to have!
May 3, 2009 at 2:49 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dalearch says...
MODem:
Yes, I can say "being a slave was a much better existence than living in ones own country that so many Africans were whisked away from". I speak from experience you seem to speak from knee-jerk emotions.
Many Africans that remain in their "own country" are enslaved there traded between tribes considered less than a "rat or rodent". By the way, a rat is a rodent.
You say we need to "read some history". I took two semesters of US history while in college, & history is one of my favorite subjects. My history professor at Mo West also taught that yes, slaves were abused to a certain extent, but not to the level believed by most. Slaves were the plantation owner's most valuable property too expensive to risk debilitating beatings on.
I love the statement "watch some historically correct biographies like Roots".
Perhaps you should follow your own advice and study some history. Alex Haley admitted to plagiarizing a book called "The African" and to making up much of Roots.
May 3, 2009 at 8:54 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
pops says...
Scrubnurse,
Perhaps Mr. Shaaf, meant "you people"....you know....as in YOU PEOPLE....the ones sitting right there....
You is an adjective....people is a noun. It's ridiculous when folks get bent over such an innocuous, innocent reference. One has to have one huge chip on their shoulder to get some racial undertone out of "you people".
May 3, 2009 at 4:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
gingersnapp says...
to the middle schooler, 12 year old Dale, I'm sure you lived in Africa during the time slaves were being tranported and sold here. A 150 years may make a difference between what happened during then and what is occurring today. When you grow up you may see the difference.
I actually think it is really kind of neat that at your age you are interested in current events like the 4th grader who grilled Secretary Rice on torture. Keep up the good work and be sure to read all sides on the issues.
My own kids have always questioned the status quo be it on the other side as you, or the side they believe in, but all opinions and sides should be taken in and debated until the right thing to do becomes the law.
May 5, 2009 at 12:55 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dalearch says...
Poor ginger:did you fall off the wagon again? If you did I'll bet it wasn't a long fall.
Evidently you're not intelligent enough to understand the fact that blacks are still selling one another into slavery. It makes no difference whether it was 150 years ago or today when discussing the living conditions in Africa when living conditions are like the Stone Age.
As usual, your rant makes no sense. Go crawl back into your bottle.
May 5, 2009 at 9:03 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dalearch says...
P.S.
Could this be a case of you doing what you accuse me of doing: launching personal attacks against someone that doesn't believe like you instead of making a logical debate?
May 5, 2009 at 9:13 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
leads says...
I know I'm going to miss the D & G. I already do.
May 5, 2009 at 10:24 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
gingersnapp says...
Dale when you grow up and participate in an adult discussion, then most of us will believe we can have an adult discussion. Until then we know you are a middle school child who has no idea of the current events other than those put in your head by your parents.
May 6, 2009 at 12:35 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dalearch says...
I'm not going to waste any more time on scum like you.
If you are so low that you actually look up to the likes of Obama, you must be even more pathetic than I thought.
May 6, 2009 at 6:21 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
borderpatrol says...
What in the heck is wrong w/ you people. is this jerry springerville or am i looking into the twilight zone. how funny you people are, so bitter. do any of you have an education beyond middle school. i bet you think they are comeing to get your guns. i bet you cry w/ beck, and go to the church of orielly, while you get spooned by rush.
May 9, 2009 at 1:49 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )