Ducking Global Issues. That Face Our Nation

One cannot blame President Bush for directing Secretary of State Colin Powell to ignore the U.N. conference on racism (Aug. 26). A conference that will stretch the international politically correct agenda, forgetting that the world, especially the rich industrial countries, do not owe anyone a living. People do deserve a helping hand, but not at the expense of other hard-working people who are themselves endeavoring to keep their heads above water, so to speak.

The Roman Catholic Church has the right approach to such earnings, especially from Africa. That is, it teaches them to help themselves, thereby securing once again their dignity. Bush is wrong in demanding that the Israeli problem not be mentioned. For Israel is racist. One example is its soldiers tearing down a Palestinian family’s house because their child threw a rock at a tank.

Edward T. Graney

Laguna Beach

The Bush administration’s refusal to fully support the United Nations conference on racism shows an unwillingness to face our country’s past crimes and assume responsibility for healing the damage done. This only continues a long history of injustice. We have much work to do.

Victor Nicassio

Los Angeles

Your article states, “Reparations for slavery, which existed legally in the United States from 1619-1865” and that “several African countries, as well as African Americans, have demanded compensation that would follow the model of payments to Japanese Americans interned in the United States during World War II and to Jewish victims of the Holocaust.” Since the U.S. was founded in 1776 and not 1619, and since the model of payments to interned Japanese Americans and Jewish Holocaust victims was based on actual victims and not their descendants centuries later, can I put in for reparations to The Times for having spent real money on bogus news?

Robert Caplain

Los Angeles

Didn’t hundreds of thousands of young American boys give up their lives and limbs to end the abomination of legal slavery in this country? Don’t their families have as much right to reparations? So maybe we should all pay each other some nominal dollar amount. Or, how about we pay each other in the civilized currency of mutual respect and trust? I’m not suggesting we duck our responsibility for the crimes of the past, but indicting the right criminals would prove an impossible task.

Let us not forget that some of the most prolific slave traders were the Africans themselves. Racism is an evil that wears as many masks as there are people on the planet; let’s look forward to an honest and universal solution, not backward to a mutual shame.

Charles Shaughnessy

Santa Monica