News-Record.com

Allen,

How is it possible for a commission to conduct a study and determine the truth of what happened more than 10 years ago? I doubt that they were able to get any eyewitness testimony. How is it tha tthey can now determine that it was a conspiracy? It may well have been so, but much time has passed which would seem to make it difficult to make a definitive determination 113 years later.

Allen,

How is it possible for a commission to conduct a study and determine the truth of what happened more than 100 years ago? I doubt that they were able to get any eyewitness testimony. How is it that they can now determine that it was a conspiracy? It may well have been so, but much time has passed which would seem to make it difficult to make a definitive determination 113 years later.

Stormy:
Historical research can uncover all sorts of new revelations.
This report is reputable, credible and well-documented. You might want to check it out before summarily dismissing it.

Stormy:

Many of the events related to what happened in Wilmington in 1898 were documented at the time. We know enough about what happened to know that it constituted the first and, God willing, only violent overthrow of a legitimately elected, legitimately serving government in U.S. history.

The conclusisons of the Wilmington Commission are already known and not a suprise. In other words, like our own TRC, nothing new has been learned. However, also like our own TRC, the "remedy" is something new. I suspect that was the point all along- get money from someone, somewhere, to pay for a liberal agenda.

The Wilmington riots are indeed a sad chapter in our state's history, and Lex is right that they were an insurrection against a legitimate government orchestrated by some racists in the Democratic Party not just to wrest power from blacks, but to eliminate the Republican Party in Wilmington.

It is too bad that this incident, like Nov. 3, 1979, is being used as a shakedown to get dollars and liberal programs instead of being remembered for the tragedy that it was. No actions taken today can undo what happened in the past. It is a whole different world with a whole new cast of characters. The idea that the public should pay for private wrongs is not supported by law or common sense.

Sam:
What defines a "public" wrong?
Does the violent overthrow of a government while the state and federal authorities do nothing not qualify?

Because the acts were committed by private citizens. If I punch you in the nose, should the taxpayer reimburse you? Who are you going to compensate 100 years later and why should people who are alive now pay for the wrongful acts of the dead? Where does it logically end?

Sam:
A LOCAL GOVERNMENT WAS OVERTURNED. By force. And the state and federal governments did nothing.
That's not merely private culpability.

If they make the reparations payable only by Democrats and newspapers then I'm all for it!
Hey, my great-great grandfather's nephew's cousin got hit by a brick thrown by a black man in 1902. Can I get some money from the NAACP for that?

Seriously, I think the reparations angle has passed absurdity. This is just a faddish way to squeeze taxpayer dollars out of the government.
Just my $.02 worth.

I repeat, who gets paid and who does the paying 100 years later?

If there is going to be a call for reparations let it begin with the people who deserve it the most, my ancestors, the Cherokee and the other Native American Tribes. Until that is paid no other group deserves any consideration for reparations and lets face it, it ain't gonna get paid ever. So the rest can just shut up with their extortion and blackmail attempts. Now, by dang , that's my nickles worth.