Re: (Fwd) [asa] Cows, diet, and warming

----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Perrett" <donperrett@theology-perspectives.net>
To: "ASA Discussions" <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2007 12:26 AM
Subject: RE: (Fwd) [asa] Cows, diet, and warming
.........................

> PS: Slavery ended only because there was enough political and economic
> support from INDIVIDUALS. The slavery issue was discussed extensively by
> our founders yet the best they could do was get blacks counted as a
> partial
> human. There was not enough people in support of abolition. Once the
> number of people against it rose well above the majority (at least in the
> north) then it was politically and economically feasible to push the
> military solution (if one calls this legislative). Individuals are also
> the
> ones that made the underground railroad possible long before the
> government
> got off their seats. But hey I suppose it would have been better those
> individuals to just wait for the government to take care of it.
>
> George, I realize you may not know, but my children are African-American.
> Just to let you know, I am the last person you will ever find in favor of
> slavery. Then again you may have mentioned for that reason. I have
> discussed the slave issue before. Good memory.

This has little to do with the point at issue but your 1st paragraph utterly
misses the point of the constitutional provision that "three fifths of all
other persons" be counted for purposes of representation. Far from being a
partial measure to recognize the rights of slaves, it was part of a
compromise insisted upon by the slave states to get them to ratify the
constitution. You might read Garry Wills' book _Negro President_ on this.

I do not remember your saying anything about your children, nor are such
personal references relevant to the question at hand. (Nor, for that
matter, is your view of slavery.) American slavery was just one issue of
many I could have chosen as a reductio ad absurdum of the claim that "People
make changes not governments." That is an absurd dichotomy. Sometimes
through government people make changes which could not be carried without
such an instituion. Slavery in the US was an obvious example.

& of course that doesn't mean that people never do anything - e.g., operate
the underground railroad - without governmental authority, or that
individuals have to wait for governments to do everything.

George Murphy

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Sun Jan 14 22:21:38 2007