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It seems to me that Americans have already paid restitution to the slaves. This price was paid in blood; and it was shed during and after the Civil War. This is not to say that all of the injustices stopped at that point, for they did not. However, that was the starting point in the abolition of slavery and the restoration of the man of color to a place of equal position. This process is not over; but I would have to argue that the price has been paid. We have shed our own human blood to atone for our own human guilt. And the price was quite high: it cost us at least 618,000 lives (see

http://www.civilwarhome.com/ca sualties.htm.

What is needed to resolve the continued problem is service and national forgiveness. Whites should continue to serve the blacks and continue to inspire them to attain to higher positions. We must serve those who have been handicapped by the bigotry, those who are still outcast and downtrodden, and those whose sorrow has crippled them, keeping them from fully attaining true freedom on their own. Blacks need to extend some forgiveness. Fights for rights and justice and equality simply prolong the conflict. The breach needs to be mended; but it will never be mended by our fighting. Only when we lay down our weapons and begin extending our love will there be true reunification and true restoration.

In my opinion, some blacks (Barack Obama included?) will not be happy until the blacks rule the whites. There is a difficulty with equality: At what point does it take place? Does it only take place when the blacks take over the position previously occupied by the whites? The whites used to enslave the blacks. Does true equality, then, mean that there will be no equality until the blacks rule over those who are of fairer color?

God, please keep us out of this crazy tit-for-tat mess! This is all the restitution movement is, in my books, is a tit-for-tat that ends up extorting money from innocent people. And not only that, but if we pursue it, will not the black people actually end up paying themselves. They have become a large minority of the American population. If we tax America now, and pay some of this to the blacks, a significant amount of that money would come out of black checking accounts and the corporations and business owned and operated by blacks.

There simply is no way to rectify wrong, to make it right, or to somehow restore injustice to justice. The only way to set them aside is through a process of repentance, forgiveness and restoration. I trust that the black community will eventually see that this is true, and that they will forgive their erring white community members and neighbors. And then let the whites accept that forgiveness and join hands with their neighbors, regardless of their race and their color; and then let us all work together to make sure that justice triumphs here in this nation. For in so doing will we not only obliterate wrong, but we will restore ourselves to justice, and to the favor of Almighty God.

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