For ages, our ancestors of all races had chosen at one time or another to place their fellow man into slavery as common practice of a less civilized world; a world of humans whose mindsets were all initially geared toward survival by any means.      

Fortunately, over the centuries, man’s incivility to man, at least in the form of slavery, lessened.

The reasons man progressed toward civility are probably a conglomeration. Some might credit a gradual and subtle religious awakening. Others may believe it a continuing positive mutation of our collective mentality. In any case, it was, and continues to be, a process of becoming more civilized; a "civilize-ation of our civilization".

And thanks to that civilize-ation, slavery was finally abolished globally in the past century except in parts of West Africa where chattel slavery is still practiced.

Apparently, unbeknownst to many, victimization as slaves was never confined only to blacks or black Americans. Blacks were only the most recent remaining victims. And in sincere deference to their inhuman exploitation, ironically in an historical context, they were to become the most fortunate of all slaves.

In contrast to the terrible fate of our white and black and other ancestors who endured lifetimes of slavery, history’s most recent slaves, black Americans, enjoyed the fate of participating in the last historical remnants of slavery and were freed as they witnessed its ultimate abolition.

With the abolition of slavery should have come a sense of gratitude, rejoicing and the immediate governmental institution of a Marshall Plan-type program of economic main streaming of black Americans into the workforce. Instead, the freed black slaves suffered an abysmal degree of bondage and manipulation by their saviors, victims of a nation-wide political scam from the very day of their freedom.

Instead of joining the work force, black Americans, slowly but surely, became major political pawns, catered to and maneuvered by politicians through vote-getting legislation of incentive-destroying "handout" monetary and material subsistence which cleverly kept them out of the workforce and totally dependant on the "handouts for votes", the multitude of firmly entrenched election-inspired welfare programs becoming a way of life never intended by the citizenry.

This way of life is represented, protected and continues to flourish today through the efforts of a most powerful, demanding and threatening Political Actrion Committees (PAC's) and clever opportunists, a la Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton, who evolved from poverty to wealth, compliments of the welfare scam and chaos.

Finding it easier each day for black folks to demand and receive whatever, of politicians, at all levels and the kowtowing of the nation's liberal faction and media to their each and every whim has encouraged further demands. And be assured that it won’t end here. The liberal white and, yes, black politicians and their black constituent "leaders" are on a roll — while those "joe six-pack" "black folks" are happy at the pork trough.

The politicians are simply utilizing the same old post-slavery, vote buying "Slavery Card" of old, to camouflage their existing (today) usage of blacks as pawns as they have been since the Civil War.

These black and white "Slavery Card" holders have become the foundation of a successful socialist movement embedded throughout the nation that most politicians and liberal media still continue to laud publicly, but now privately fear somewhat, having found themselves as the folks who are beginning to regress from being the "scammers" to the scammies".

I’m convinced that the "slavery issue" itself is passé and black folks have somewhat allayed their decades-old vindictiveness over slavery. But then, fanatically, their "leaders" preach, "black folks just can’t afford to "fold" that fetching "Slavery Card!!"

So, the consequence of slavery, per se, is not the problem. It’s the resultant, learned "Slavery Card" scam dealt by politicians and black folks being cleverly played against one another, both whose decks are stacked in no one’s favor, in the end.

And so the "Slavery Card" scam continues today in Texas and throughout the South and will probably continue. 

Instead of a limp resolution of symbolism over substance that would express Texas' "regret for slavery", why not consider the following:

If any apology is due to black folks by white American citizens, it should be for the tragic post-slavery period endured after the end of the Civil War when slavery and oppression was in clear violation of the principals and moral humanity of a nation recently civilized.

Blacks and American Indians should not hold their breath until this U.S. monachy becomes a democratic republic. 

Armond "Si" Simmons

Pell City, AL 35128