WHAT IS OWED (concluding section)
by Nikole Hannah-Jones
NY Times June 30, 2020
If black lives are to truly matter in America, this nation must move beyond slogans and symbolism. Citizens don’t inherit just the glory of their nation, but its wrongs too. A truly great country does not ignore or excuse its sins. It confronts them and then works to make them right. If we are to be redeemed, if we are to live up to the magnificent ideals upon which we were founded, we must do what is just.
 It is time for this country to pay its debt. It is time for reparations.
(Nikole Hannah-Jones is a staff writer for the magazine. In 2020, she won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary for her essay about black Americans and democracy. She is the creator of The 1619 Project, which won the National Magazine Award for public interest and a George Polk special award this year. She is also a 2017 MacArthur fellow.)
The push for reparations includes active efforts from Indigenous people, New Mexicans whose land grant rights from the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo have been ignored, and the descendants of the African slaves throughout the US.
Below are links to several information sources on reparations efforts by all three groups. What are your thoughts on these causes?

 

As we come to the end of this fraught year, I’m thinking about how we as Americans can make 2021 a truly “new year.” Can we recognize past and present injustices and start repairing hurts? What does it mean to “make amends”? And finally, what is justice? This TED Radio Talk explores these questions in historical, social and personal contexts, and suggests some possible paths forward.  What can we do locally, individually or as a group? Let me know what you think.
Stephanie
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"Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see Black, White, and Latino youth clustered in their own groups. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about enabling communication across racial and ethnic divides. These topics have only become more urgent as the national conversation about race is increasingly acrimonious."

Post your comments here on a weekly basis starting Jan 4 as follows: 

Week of Jan 4:  Introductions and Part I
Week of Jan 11: Part II
Weekof Jan 18:  Part III
Week of Jan 25: Part IV
Week of Feb 1: Part V and Conclusion ("Continuing the Conversation")

New edition available now in hardback, paperback, audiobook and ebook.

COVID Vaccine Distribution: Issues of Efficacy & Equity
Excerpt from New Yorker interview 12.4.20 with Dr.Atul Gawande, author on “Being Mortal”
Interviewed by David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker
 
After health-care workers and nursing homes, who gets the vaccine next? It’s almost like some terrible philosophical, moral, ethical conundrum that philosophers are faced with all the time. What are your discussions like when it comes to those next levels?
There are eighty-seven million essential workers who are at heightened risk of exposure. They are, say, meatpackers who are exposed to co-workers, or grocery-store workers or bus drivers who are exposed. You’ll be able to go to your local pharmacy and get a vaccine, but what they need to know is, how do they identify who’s the bus driver and who’s not?
Will the government be able to guarantee us that wealthy people, connected people, won’t be able to jump the line?
I think this is one of the critical tests—and an opportunity. The chance to prove that the system is not rigged should not be underestimated. It’s hard. Think about it. The bus drivers never came before the bankers before. You’re going to have Zoom workers who want to go back to normal, and I cannot blame the number of people who will say, You know, thank God I can finally not be in fear. Let me get the vaccine. What do you mean, I have to wait five months? I can imagine a million ways [of jumping the line], people paying someone twenty-five hundred bucks to get your work I.D. tag. This is all about rallying people together. It can’t just be about the rules. It has to be about how we all understand this and work together to say, These are the folks most at risk. They make our subways work. They make our buses work. They get our food supply to us. They make it possible for me to go grocery shopping, and I’ll just have to wait three or four months for my turn.
What do you think?
Irene

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