Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Apology: Here's a press release I got.

News Conference on Wednesday to Discuss Anti-Lynching Resolution

WASHINGTON, DC –U.S. Senator George Allen (R-VA) joins Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) tomorrow in introducing legislation calling for a formal apology for the failure of the U.S. Senate to enact Anti-Lynching laws when thousands of mostly African Americans were being tortured at the hands of lawless individuals and mobs throughout the U.S. up until 1964. The Senators will be joined in a news conference by Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) to discuss this historic resolution.

This seems very ceremonial and doesn't provide anything substantial, so I don't know what good it will do. But it's also odd that lawmakers are willing to apologize about lynching and have refused to apologize about slavery. It's just a shame that the people who committed the crime aren't able to apologize for themselves.

The legislation is just being introduced, but who knows if it will actually pass. Some people may want to bury it before somebody points out that Congress has still failed to pass adequate hate-crimes legislation. I guess some people don't learn well from history.