By Randy Rossi -
Any informed American should be outraged over Evanston’s new “Reparations” program it just passed which takes tax dollars from legal pot sales starting on 1/1/2020 and gives roughly $750,000 a year to help only African-Americans which Dems say “have suffered under the persisting effects of slavery and institutional discrimination”. This is the perfect intersection of ignorance and destructive political correctness.
First, over 600,000 Americans died and over a million were wounded in the Civil War which was fought to free the African-American slaves back in 1861-1865, over 154 years ago. That tragedy paid our country’s reparations! Every country on Earth has had slavery at one time or another and America ended that outrage with its blood and treasure long before many countries on Earth did. In fact, slavery is still widely practiced and millions of people are still enslaved in Africa and Asia. Thankfully in America the GOP Union Army led by Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated the Democrats who led the Confederate Army which fought to keep slavery 154 years ago. After winning that war, the Republicans then passed the 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments in 1865 which ended slavery and gave African-Americans citizenship and the right to vote even though a majority of Democrats voted against those amendments.
At least 26 members of my family fought with the Union Army to free the slaves and based on statistics, 7 were killed and 13 were wounded. My family is still proud of our role in helping to free the slaves. My family has already paid our reparations!
The Dems whose families fought to keep slavery in the Civil War and refused to approve the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments are the ones who should pay reparations, not us Republicans whose families fought for freedom! On top of that, how many Americans know that 13% of the slaves in America were owned by free black plantation owners and Native Americans who owned slaves and fought with the Confederate Army to keep them? Therefore only Democrats and those African-Americans and Native Americans whose families fought to keep slavery should pay those reparations. Seems rational to me!
But then my guess is that only Dems will be buying legal dope so in effect they will be the only ones paying those reparations in Evanston! Republicans have enough common sense to know that dope can ruin your life so they won’t be buying it to fund Evanston’s insulting and discriminatory “reparations” scam. Now that’s karma!
Elected local government officials are required to swear an oath, which states in part, they will uphold the Illinois State constitution. Part of the Illinois state constitution is the preamble. The preamble mandates government ” to provide for the health, safety and welfare of the people;”. The laws that the state legislature enacts must fall into those categories. No thinking person can believe providing legal and easy access to buy a drug that is known to cause mental health and violence problems to dope smokers satisfies the Illinois constitution’s mandate of “to provide for the health, safety and welfare of the people”. The democrat-controlled Illinois state legislature’s legal marijuana bill exposes Illinois localities to possible litigation if local government votes to allow recreational marijuana dispensaries. Should a person develop a mental illness and or be violent after buying and using dope purchased at a city or county allowed dope dispensary, the county will be subject to a possible lawsuit. The facts are in and today’s marijuana can and does cause mental illness and violence in smokers of marijuana. Many studies show that to be true; on top of that experts on the issue like ER doctors, mental health professionals, and law enforcement advise local government to opt out of dope dispensaries. Dope smokers will think marijuana is safe because it is legal to buy at a dispensary. I don’t believe because the Illinois General Assembly enacted a law, making recreational dope dispensaries an option, the localities are protected from a lawsuit. It should be clear to the entire state legislature the marijuana law was unlawfully enacted, the preamble in the Illinois constitution is quite clear, government enacted laws are to “provide for the health, safety and welfare of the people”. Recreational dope dispensaries don’t do that! Dispensary sold recreational dope is a lawsuit waiting to happen, for any county or city that votes to allow a dispensary. The democrat controlled general assembly has bamboozled tax dollar starved local government, who have voted to allow a recreational dispensary because they are desperate for revenue. It’s easy to see why local governments were given the option by the state legislature to allow dope dispensaries, because when the first lawsuit is filed against a city and or county, the state legislature and courts will say they had the option to opt out and did not. Putting the responsibility for mental health issues and acts of violence by persons smoking recreational dope purchased at city and county government allowed dispensaries squarely on the back of local government. And we know who will pay that bill. “In order to provide for the health, safety and welfare of the people” is a constitutional mandate by the people of Illinois, not a suggestion. HB 1438, the legal marijuana bill doesn’t take effect until January 1, 2020. The Illinois constitution is the law which local government members swore an oath to uphold, as such, you members must vote to opt the county and cities out of recreational marijuana dispensaries. This failure of the democrat-controlled state legislature to obey constitutional law is a scandal. This HB 1348 power grab shows contempt for law by subverting the Illinois constitution and must be repealed by the democrat-controlled state legislature. The state legislature is not all powerful and cannot enact just any law they want. The Illinois state Constitution sets the limits, and the state legislature must respect those limits.
None of my family has ever owned slaves and I have ancestors who fought in the civil war wearing the blue uniform! If you want reparations paid, then talk to England, it was the King of England that instituted slavery in the colonies. I ain’t paying nothing
What is their complaint with Evanston, Illinois that deserves reparations? A quick visit to the War Memorial at Fountain Square will reveal that Evanston was firmly committed to the Union and numerous locals enlisted and died fighting the Confederacy.
Evanston had no role in the slave trade.
Since the Arabs, Africans, Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish were all active in slave trading, perhaps the activists ought to be seeking reparations from these countries.
Cannabis made a lot of these council members and a lot of their voters. That, in and of itself, is strong proof of its harm.
Increasingly the ‘values and attitudes’ of far too many north of I-80
it gets worse everyday at every level.
Use dope money to help African-Americans? What an insult. That’s like using tobacco money help needy Mormons. Give me a break.The one advantage of the plan is that you can salve your guilt feelings by paying reparations with other people’s money,
This is a JOKE. Reparations?? What the he’ll do most homeowners in Evanston have zero to do with discrimination. The ” racism” is on WHITES now. I’m selling. I won’t give a penny for this. If you want a REAL civil war in this country, keep it up. You really want whites to hate blacks, keep it up!