A political party desperate to regain relevance after a massive change in its election support has reintroduced its backward-looking notion of financial reparations for living descendants of slaves. This blatantly discriminatory suggestion is devilish in two major respects – it’s to-be-disclosed details and the spurious notion that current generations have been consciously disadvantaged by their race and roles. Is this a one-time apology award or continuing selective grift? Whatever the case, what kind of precedent would it set? How many other racial or ethnic groups – Native American, Irish, German, Jewish, Polish, etc. – could assert similar claims about the process of assimilation into American culture? History is rewarding in an instructive sense for future consideration. In the long term, how much different were conditions of indentured servitude than today’s illegally admitted agricultural crop hands? Should we budget an apology reserve for their future benefit? Wouldn’t eventual citizenship for those who prove worthy be sufficient? The vocal reparations crowd is desperate to orchestrate a guilt-trip handout for one of numerous past acts of arguable ldiscrimination. Their righteous virtue would be far better signaled by crusading against current societal threats from rampant drug abuse and consequent criminality. Phil Osifer