New Congressman Introduces Bill to Apologize for Slavery

"It’s something I’ve thought about for a long time," Newly elected Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen told Memphis Online's CommercialAppeal.com in a telephone interview Monday night. "I thought about it as an issue to address now that I’ve come to Congress. I felt during Black History Month was just an appropriate time."

It's a fine idea for the US to issue an apology, but I like what Democratic strategist Morris Reid said on Paula Zahn's CNN show about this last night:

REID: I just think it's an empty promise. I don't want a -- I don't want a sorry. You know what I would rather the Congress did? Fund public education and make sure people had universal health care, you know, make sure we had good schools. That's the -- that's the real issue here. African-Americans feel like they have been neglected, they have always gotten a second -- been a second-class citizen. Don't give me an empty promise. Give me what I want, which is a good education, health care, and -- and safe schools and a safe community. That's more important to me than an empty promise that's going to be watered down, that's going to be politicized, and just going to cause more division.