>>> ForstaterM at umkc.edu 03/26/01 11:27AM >>>
in my recent debates around kc on the issue, i've formulated a few responses to
the 'usual' myths/arguments against reps. when someone says that 'it happened a
long time ago...' my basic response is: the issue is not the amount of time that
has passed, but rather, first, whether or not an injustice was committed (are
there time limits to addressing injustices?) and, second, are there present
effects of the past injustice?
(((((((((
CB: On long term historical cause, I sometimes try to use patriotism and patriotic sentiment but with an opposite implication than most patriots, flagwavers I mean , draw. In other words, patriotic Americans have no problem identifying personally with all the good stuff they think happened in U.S. history. Fighting for and worshipping the flag , and "freedom" even, is rooted in a notion that causes and links to a long time ago are alive and well. I mean how do Americans and America rationalize their rights to the land they stand on except by tracing that "title" through events long ago in history.
Well, if history's causes are alive and well for what you like in them, they are also alive and well for what you don't like in them. Just as rights to land and property here are rooted in history, debts and obligations from wealth transactions from history have present day substance.
Anyone who feels a personal patriotic connection to America's history for freedom, with its consequent privileges of citizenship is logically bound to accept a connection to America's history of unfreedom, with its consequent obligations of citizenship. Patriotism is a doubleedged sword, and we should use the rarely used edge in this debate.