Oh So Rich

When I saw this I about fell out of my chair, one has to wonder how Rev. Al Sharpton felt when it was made news that his ancestors were owned by none other than the late Sen. Strom Thurmond's family and they may share common blood. While the Barnyard does not agree with the historical stand of either of these men, the irony and small worldness has to be appreciated, the "reparations" voice and the "segregationists" historically and forever linked by blind fate. How long before Sharpton files a suit against the Thurmond estate demanding to be paid off? He may actually have a case, though I think he should not make a big affair out of it as it would do nothing to help his community. Slavery was and still is a great sin upon humanity. We must remember that the practioners of the slave trade of the last couple centuries has mainly been by Islamic cultures and that it has been Christianity that has led the fight against it.
It was Islamists that ran the Barbary Coast, the hub of the African slave trade untill smashed by America under Jefferson. tens of millions more African slaves were taken to Arabia and Persia than were sent to the West. The difference, most of those sent to the West have extended surviving families not so for those sent East. Here in America a slave was a valuable asset and expensive and most owners at least treated them as such, a beaten unhappy slave was not as productive and the big plantations knew that and they lived no harder lives than white share-croppers and starry eyed settlers and in some cases better.
Goat did not miss a minute of the TV series "Roots" as a kid, and then went on the library waiting list for agonizing weeks for the book and it remains one of the most influential books ever read. Dr. Rice just a few miles away at the time and in a totally different world overcame that diminsion to become the most powerful woman in the world. She matured in the hell of Bull Connor's Birmingham inside the tight community of her fathers Church. Goat ran around like a useless twit on thousands of acres of farm and parkland, learning about snakes and large mouthed bass while she practiced Chopin. It is one thing to be able to hit a moving target at 500 yards it is another to move rogue nations with words. Some how I have a feeling Dr. Rice might know a bit about the finer arts of fishing and hunting as well.
Slavery is wrong but what went on in America must be put in context of what did and still goes on in the Islamic world. The treatment of women being a blatant and blaring signal to civilized people of a very real threat from modern day Islamic slavery. That is why Sam Adams' famous quote has a prominent place in the Barnyard.