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Editorials Cartoons Columns Letters OMMEN'l 8A THURSDAY July 27. 2000 Reparations for slavery only demagogues win The last desecrate argument for reparations is that with resentments and distractions from the task of Thomas Sowell Crtaton Syndicate, Inc. The first thing to understand about the issue of reparations for slavery is that do money is going to be paid. The very people who are demanding reparations know it is not going to happen. Why then are they demanding something that they know they are not going to get? Because the demagogues themselves will benefit, even if nobody else does.

Stirring up historic grievances pays off in publicity and votes. Some are saying mat Congress should at least issue an official apology for slavery. But slavery is not something you apologize for, and more than you apologize for murder. You apologize for accidentally stepping on someone's toes or for playing your TV too loud at night. But, if you have ever enslaved anybody, an apology is not going to cut it And if you never enslaved anybody, then what are you apologizing for? The very idea of apologizing for what somebody else did is meaningless, however fashionable it has become.

A scholar once said that the great economist David Ricardo "was above the unctuous phrases mat cost so little and yield such ample returns." Apparently many others are not The only thing that would give the idea of reparations for slavery even the appearance of rationality is an assumption of collective guilt passed down from generation to generation. But if we start operating on blacks have lower incomes and occupations than whites today because of the legacy of slavery. Do the people who say this seriously believe that black and white incomes and occupations would be the same if Africans had immigrated voluntarily to this country? Scholars who have spent years studying racial and ethnic groups in countries around the world have yet to come up with single country where all the different groups have the same incomes and occupations. Why would people from Africa be the lone exception on this planet? Croups everywhere differ too much in too many ways to have the same outcomes. Slavery itself wis not unique to Africans.

The very word "slave" derives from the name of a European people the Slavs, who were enslaved for centuries before the first African was brought to the Western Hemisphere. The tragic fact is that slavery existed all over the world, for thousands of years. Unfortunately, irresponsible demagogues have also existed for thousands of yean. To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page a www.creators.com. Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford.

Calif. 94305. His web site is www.tsowell.com. developing the capabilities that pay off in a booming economy and a high-tech world? Whites may experience a passing annoyance over the reparations issue, but blacks especially young blacks can sustain more lasting damage from misallocating their time, attention and efforts. Does anyone seriously suggest that blacks in America today would be better off if they were in Africa? If not then what is the compensation for? Sometimes it is claimed that slavery made a great contribution to the development of the American economy, from which other Americans benefited, so that reparations would be like back pay.

Although slaveowners benefited from slavery, it is by no means obvious that there were net benefits to the economy as a whole, especially when you subtract the staggering costs of the Civil War. Should the immoral gains of dead people be repaid by living people who are no better off than if slavery had never existed? The poorest region of the United States has long been the region in which slavery was concentrated. The same is true of Brazil and was true of 18th century Europe. The worldwide track record of slavery as an economic system is bad. Slaveowners benefited, but that is not saying that the economy as a whole benefited.

the principle that people alive today are responsible for what their ancestors did in centuries past we will be adopting a principle that can tear any society apart, especially a multi-ethnic society like the United States. Even if we were willing to go down thatiangerous road, the facts of history do not square with the demand for reparations. Millions of immigrants arrived in this country from Europe, Asia and Latin America after slavery was over. Are their descendants guilty too and expected to pay out hard cash to redeem themselves? Even during the era of slavery, most white people owned no slaves. Are their descendants supposed to pay for the descendants of those who did? What about the effect of all this on today's black pop ulation? anyone made better off by being supplied Mill I i EtUX-JciQMl OPINION Editorial expression in these columns represents our own views.

Opinions are limited to this page. Letters to the Editor represent views of the authors. Adjoining columns, cartoons and other items reflect a variety of opinions in an effort to provide diverse viewpoints for our readers. They are not the opinions of this newspaper. Lynne Cheney's background gives insight about husband People say that husbands and wives often start to look like each other after a while.

Observe some married couples around Greenwood. See for yourself. But looks aren't everything. Very often, they think alike, too. That's why a look at Lynne Cheney can be a tip-off to what the Republican vice presidential "A nut case like Buchanan taking control of MY Reform Party? Imagine thatl" Reparations for slavery living not at fault If the November elections put Democrats seen in the western hemisphere, would have been all but impossible without the help of Africans and Arabs.

Incidentally, President Clinton apologizing for slavery in Africa, of all places, is stupid apologizing to descen- i i i i a 7 Walter E. Williams A Minority View 2 Creators Syndicate, Inc. 4 aanis oi Slave iraaers ior slavery in America. Though it's not politically correct to say, today's blacks benefited immensely from the horrors suffered by our ancestors. You say: "What do you mean, Williams? Would you run that by us?" Most black Americans are in the solid middle class.

In fact, if we totaled the income black Americans earned each year, and thought of ourselves as a sep- nrifa nifmn irmA the I AtVt nr 1 th rishtct money Is used for them. These were after Lynne Cheney headed the Endowment While there, she took a dim view of spending for artists to be blasphemous, obscene and just plain objectionable. She took some heat for her efforts, especially from "politically correct humanities scholars" who rejected traditional scholarly values. She said grant applicants "wanted to use taxpayer money to advance their agendas I was willing to turn down projects that had politics as their goaL" Instead, during her tenure as head of the Endowment, such respected projects as a series on the Civil War were financed. She promoted use of museums, libraries, and other institutions as extensions of the traditional classroom.

Generally, it appears that Lynne Cheney's background represents the family values of old, the kind that we see too little of today, and the kind that helped guide this nation to unparalleled heights of world service. Dick Cheney obviously shares the same qualities as his wife, and, as they say, that ain't bad. One thing seems certain hereabouts. The values that the Cheneys embrace are the same values that a lot of people around Greenwood feel are standards to live by. As far as finding harmony with most Americans, Bush has made a good choice.

Cheney is a good man, apparently in all respects. He gets extra credit if for no other reason, the Cheneys provide a much wel comed relief from crassness of the present residents of the White House. candidate will be like if elected. That, of course, is Dick Cheney, GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush's choice as running mate.

Cheney, to be sure, has enough of a resume in public service that many Americans already know where he stands on the issues. He's solid. He's conservative. He's been a member of Congress, Secretary of Defense, and chief of staff at the White House, among other things. More than that, he's liked by folks all across the political spectrum, a good indication of the character of the man.

Wives have a special insight, though, and Lynne Cheney, who has a substantial resume of her own, can give us a glimpse of what we might expect Nothing could do that more than how she ran the National Endowment for the Humanities when she was chairwoman of that federal agency. As most folks know, that agency has been a hot water several times. Perhaps the most recent was the debate over funding for objectionable "art" that involved elephant dung. Before that there was a profanity with a form of Jesus in a bot fact, there was plantation slavery in some parts of Africa, such as the Sudan, Zanzibar and Egypt. Thus, a natural question arises: Do reparations advocates hold those who sold blacks into slavery subject to reparations payment? After all slavery, of the scale Berry's World in control of the House of Representatives, we can expect John.Conyers, to introduce legislation that would set up a committee to decide who would qualify for reparations of slavery, whether they should be compensated in cash, land or some other payment, and how much each black person would receive.

City councils in Chicago, Houston, Detroit and several other cities have already called for Congress to hold hearings on reparations. First off, let me say that I agree with reparations advocates that slavery was a horrible, despicable violation of basic human rights. I'd also agree that were it possible slave owners should make reparations to those whom they enslaved. The problem, of course, is both slaves as well as their owners are all dead. Thus, punishing perpetrators and compensating victims is out of the hands of the living.

Reparations advocates, however, want today's blacks to be compensated for the suffering of our ancestors. If we acknowledge that government has no resources of its very own, and that to give one American a dollar government must first confiscate it from some other American, we might ask what moral principle justifies forcing a white of today to pay a black of today for what a white of yesteryear did to a black of yesteryear? We might also recognize that a large percentage of today's Americans, be they of European, Asian, African or Latin ancestry, don't even go back three or four generations. Are they to be held accountable and taxed for slavery and why? Then there's the fact that while slave own- ers aren't the only villains in the piece. In Africa, Moslems dominated the slave trade in the 18th and 19th centuries. Africans also engaged in slave trade with Europeans.

In nation. Even the 34 percent of blacks considered to be poor are fairly weir off by world standards. Had there not been slavery, and today's blacks were born in Africa instead of the United States, we'd be living in the same poverty that today's Africans live in and under the same brutal regimes. If reparations were to be made, then what? Would reparation payments accomplish what the 6 trillion dollars spent since 196S on the War on Poverty didn't? Let's face the fact that there's not one thing anyone can do to change the past. There's a lot we can do about the future.

Dwelling on the past comes at the expense of preparing for the future. There's one condition where I might fall prey to the reparations temptation. The federal government owns up to 90 percent of I I I I All MirjpL6 EAST UIC laliu ill wcaiiu aiaics cum as rvidMia, Nevada, New Mexico and California. Turning the land over to blacks, and hence into private hands, might not be a bad idea. To find out more about Walter Williams.

.1 1 a. tle. Most people around Greenwood are shocked by such things, especially when tax unu rvuu jKUiuie uy uiner reuiurs oynui- cate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com. www comics com 2000 6yNtA Me WHAT THEY'RE SAYING "Perhaps at times we have too many monuments, too many holidays, and things of this kind, but D-Day is not one of them. It is one of the days we should never forget." Jennie Schulz, widow of "Peanuts creator and World War II veteran Charles Schulz, at the unveiling of a portion of the National D-Day Memorial being built in Bedford, Virginia TODAY'S TRIVIA The state flower of Kansas is the sunflower.

The National Weather Service classifies a tornado as a violent rotating column of air in contact with the ground and pendant from a thundercloud, notes The World Almanac. It is usually recognized as a funnel-shaped vortex accompanied by a loud roar from rotating winds up to 300 mph. Judith Mundy Burns William A. Collins President Hid Publiiher Executive Editorial Editor Richard Jackson, CPA Harry Garrett Executive Controller Executive Marketing Director Roger Burton Albert Ashley Production Miniier Circutation Minijer NEWS i Robert Bentley Richard S. Whiting Executive Newi Editor Miraginf Editor R.

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