Flashback
Editor's note: This letter was originally published five years ago today.
Reparations demand
Presidential candidates brought back the specter of reparations payments to some of today's Americans in recompense for wrongs done to some of their distant ancestors by the ancestors of some of today's Americans. Good, here's my application.
Of Euro-American ancestors, the Germans have the most troubling history. Last to coalesce into a modern nation-state, their inferiority complex caused them to overcompensate most aggressively, stirring up the bloodiest wars of all time. By birthing Marx and Engels, the fathers of Marxism/socialism/communism, they were responsible for at least 100 million deaths in the 20th century.
Could this history of misbehavior and stunted national growth be a legacy going back to their conquest and enslavement by that politically incorrect tyrant and bully, Julius Caesar? I say, why not? How much more peacefully and successfully might Germans have developed into an enlightened modern state had they not been put on the wrong track by the continuing legacy of cultural instability caused by their enslavement so long ago? Amends must be made! Every American of Italian descent should be made to pay reparations to every American of German descent to atone for this stain of slavery by generations past.
Or perhaps we could strive to not judge one another "by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" and, looking forward, work toward an America "with liberty and justice for all." Yes, I think I'd like that better. Petition withdrawn.
KARL T. KIMBALL
Little Rock