European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 18, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Slave reparations still getting a Clear look Clarence Page have an old faded photo that must be 100 years old on the Wall of my Den. It is a classic victorian Era portrait of a Gray haired Afri can american couple in stiff nigh collars. The Man s Busly White Beard and twinkling cheekbones make him look like a Black Santa Claus. His wife looks More serious As if she is waiting for this picture taking foolishness to end so she can get Back to More important duties. I never knew the two of them but they mean a lot to me. My father tells me that they Are his Mother s parents. He does t know much about them beyond that except that they were Farmers in Alabama they went to Church every sunday and before Abraham Lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation they lived their lives As slaves. America s racial past unavoidably haunts its pre sent and nags at its future. Even the slavery question returns in periodic eruptions like this summer s fifth annual conference on reparations that brought 200 people to Detroit s Cobo Hall for three Days. The idea of Black americans receiving compensation for their forebears free labor Pur "40 acres and a mule has been for most Black americans either a rallying cry or a sick joke for Many years. It s not just an Idle dream it s a broken Promise. Several Bills to provide reparations to slaves were introduced during the civil War but All were blocked. A postwar Field order by Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman divided up nearly a half million acres of confiscated slave owners land into 40-acre plots for rep. John Conyers helps keep drive alive. Former slaves but was rescinded by president an Drew Johnson in 1869. Since then the reparations possibility has faded but the movement lingers. It has fuelled the rhetoric of separatists and demagogues who rail against White treachery and deceit. It gathered strength during the empowerment phase of the Black liberation move ment in the late 1960s. It has stayed alive in con Gress thanks to die hard reparation its such As rep. John Conyers a Black Democrat from Detroit. Most recently the movement has been invigorated by the Success of other groups like the japanese americans who won $1.2 billion in reparations for their internment in Camps during world War ii and the eight Sioux Indian tribes who won $105 million in 1980 for land seized by Congress in 1877. In that spirit Detroit activist reparations Ray Jenkins promised at the conference that a class action lawsuit for reparations for african americans will be filed against the Federal government. I wish him Luck. Forty acres and a mule can fetch a pretty Good Price these Days. But i am not going to hold my breath waiting for either to be delivered. First the Legal hurdles look to say the least formidable. Today s living african americans unlike native americans or japanese americans Lack two of the things courts respect most direct victimization and a contract or treaty that has been broken. The primary victims of slavery unlike Indian organizations or victims of japanese american intern ment in the 1940s, Are All dead. Slave family lines have become diluted Over the years with no slave family blood. The Best one could Hope for would be an amusing Stampede by Cash hungry folks who heretofore had claimed to be White but now amazingly want to be considered Black so they can Cash in. One leading reparation is Jesse Jackson gets around that concern by calling for a More generalized compensation for All african nations and peo ple of african descent for the pain of colonialism and its exploitations slavery included. But what one wonders about the descendants of those africans who profited from Selling fellow Afri cans into slavery Pardon me for bringing up an unpleasant historical fact but it is a fact. Slavery alas was an equal Opportunity employer. It s just that some were More equal than others. If the reparations movement has any value it is in its reminding americans that the problems associated with Black poverty and discrimination today were not created overnight. Rather they Are the product of historical injustices a debt that left unpaid exacts a calamitous social Cost in lives property and National Confidence from everyone whether their families owned slaves or not. Black Fita maker Spike Lee named his company 40 acres and a mule productions to remind everyone of America s unpaid debt to the families of Black slaves. But As much As his company is named after reparations it is not the product of them unless you count in a cosmic Way the education he received at Atlanta s Morehouse College a historically Black College established for the children of freed slaves. America s neglect of Public education and Job opportunities in Low income Black neighbourhoods has created new generations of slavery out of Freedom. There May be no better Way for America to right its historical wrongs than to ensure that every Onci regardless of race or background has Access Taoheed a National opportunities All americans will need to succeed in the coming Century. We can t change the past. But we can save our future. Chicago Tribune to buy into concept of giant stores Andy Rooney on Many saturdays of my life the Only Way 1 keep from doing jobs i ought Todo is by going to the store. Having to Good the Mure is a wonderfully Good sex fuse fur not getting anything done. The store 1 like to go to Best is the hardware store. Over the years i be acquired one of almost every thing any hardware store Sells but now i m worried. Hardware stores Are harder to go to because there Are fewer of them and Many of the ones left Aren t very Good. To survive hardware stores have had to become part housewares stores. Nuts bolts and tools Are hardware. Pots pans and toaster ovens Are housewares. In some stores there s a lot of overlap Ping. ". When i was a boy my favorite store to go to was the drugstore because drugstores had soda fountains and sold ice Cream and cold drinks. They made their own cokes and at no extra Cost you could get a squirt of Cherry Flavoured syrup in it All for a Nickel. The Glass was distinctly coca cola shaped. There were eight or 10 tall stools in front of the soda Fountain and three or four Small round White Marble tables on Black Metal legs. Each table had four three legged chairs around it. The chairs were three legged because being triangular four of Terji fit together like a Cut Pic around the Little table. In later years i be spent a lot of time in Good Small bookstores. I love to browse and almost always buy a Book even though there arc several dozen books at Home in line ahead of it waiting to be read. Buying a Book and Reading a Book Are not necessarily related. Having a Book is a pleasure All its own. It s sad to see that Good neighbourhood hardware stores drugstores and bookstores Are endangered species. If anything terrible can happen to a store you like it does Ami terrible things arc happening to All three. They re being driven out of business by giants. The same thing is happening to hardware drug and bookstores that happened years ago to neigh boyhood grocery stores when they were eaten alive by the supermarket chains. It s the american Way but i wish there was another Way. Local hardware stores Are being pressed by two giants Home depot and builders  re both building stores so big you need bus transportation to get from one end to the other. Local pharmacies their soda fountains Long gone Are losing out to the huge Chain tvs which has sworn it s going to open a Branch in every town in America. A Chain store can hang on in a relatively Small town and lower prices until it drives the locally owned pharmacy out of business. After that with no Competition it can charge what it wants every Good Small Bookstore run by someone who actually reads books is threatened by Barnes & Noble and Borders supermarket style bookstores. They re prospering All across the country. Local hardware stores were initially Hurt Many years ago by Sears and Montgomery Ward. They in turn were Hurt by chains like Rickel. Now those smaller super stores Are getting killed by Home depot and builders Square. Many of the Independent hardware stores Long ago had to become less in dependent by joining dealer owned co Ops like True value Ace serv Istar and sentry from which they buy Cut rate merchandise and participate in profits. The worst thing about the giant bookstores and the giant hardware stores is they Aren t bad. They have a lot of stuff. The Only thing that would make me Happy about the drugstore chains would be if they put in soda fountains where 1 could get a Cherry Coke. Tribune Media services Andy Rooney is a former stars and stripes reporter. Pages sunday september 18, 1994