Here are some things I just don't get. Reparations For Slavery Slavery was a sad, awful, moral calamity in American history.No question.But this whole notion of making companies of today pay for the sins of long-dead predecessors seems counterproductive to me. Proponents of the lawsuit against railroad giant CSX, Aetna Insurance and FleetBoston financial services group say those companies have been profiting from slavery for more than two centuries. The suit was filed on behalf of 35 million American descendants of African slaves. The suit claims there may be as many as 1,000 unidentified companies that benefited from slavery between 1619 and 1865.A request for class action status means the plaintiffs want to add more companies to the list of defendants. Those companies should have to compensate the descendants of those slaves, is the basic premise of the suit.
GARY GERARD, Times-Union Managing Editor- | July 28, 2016