How Long To Fix Something From
History?
I have thought about how long we
should try to fix something that happened in the past. The creation of
the State of Israel came to mind. For centuries, Jewish people held out
for a return to a land they called their own, Israel. The problem was and
is, millions of Arabs also call the same land home. In the late 1940’s,
the UN decided to carve out a piece of Palestine and give it to Jewish people,
it became Israel. It may sound cynical, but the Holocaust of World War II
did a lot to spur action on getting a homeland for Jews. On one hand it
may have given land to a people who have faced discrimination and slaughter for
millennia, but it also caused large issues that we deal with today.
If the Jewish people deserved land to
call home what about the Kurdish people? Kurds are the largest group of
people who do not have their own homeland. They are the majority of
people in northern Iraq. They have been the driving force to eliminate
Al-Queda and ISIS from Iraq and Syria. Turkey will use all its might to
prevent the creation of a “Kurdistan.” This is due to the fact that vast
parts of southeast Turkey have large Kurdish populations. Turkey does not
want a Kurdish homeland on its border. But, it is the right thing to do.
In the US, there have proposals on
and off for decades on providing reparations for slavery. Reparations
should have been provided in the 1860’s and 70’s. Blacks Americans live
with issues of racism, not slavery. This may be a nuanced point of view
since a lot of blacks think racism is just a different form of slavery. I
don’t believe there can be an equitable way to pay reparations for slavery or
racism. We need to deal with the racism, not just pay some monetary
amount for it.
The American Indian population was
dealt wrongly by the “invaders.” Many civilizations have been overrun by
other groups throughout history. However, the US government made treaties
with all the Indian tribes and then broke those treatises when it was in their
interest. This is an issue we need to address today. The Indian tribes
were defeated like many other civilizations; however, their treatment has not
been fair or correct.
At the personal level, how long
should you go back to right something you did wrong? This is very
subjective and what was the level of “wrong” you did. You would not go
right something just to make yourself feel better. You would do it if it
would help the person(s) you wronged. You may not be forgiven by him/her
but hope that it helps them close bring closure to the issue. If it helps
you, that is a by-product but shouldn’t be the goal.
It is important for a country and an
individual to reflect on the wrongs done in the past and try to rectify or
mitigate damage that was done.
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