Should The US Apologize For Slavery?

The United States Senate recently approved a nonbinding resolution apologizing to African Americans for slavery.

I have mixed feelings on this. I am not sure if I want an apology or need an apology. What happened _ happened years ago.
Slavery was unfortunate. It was brutal. It eradicated an entire culture from a group of innocent people. Lives were forever changed, but grace, hope and determination keep us alive and going. We are stronger than before and we keep moving on. The road hasn’t been easy but life never is.

Should the US apology for slavery? I don’t know? I feel that I am far removed from slavery. Or am I?

Perhaps it is a generational thing. My parents, grandparents, uncles and other elders in my family are divided, when it comes to an apology. No. They aren’t looking for reparations (we make our own money), but the way some of them see it_ if the US apologized to every other group they have wronged (the Japanese, the American Indians and Jews just to name a few) why not apologize to African American’s whose ancestors were enslaved?

Will an apology change things? What will the country gain from an apology? Will it allow us as a nation to move forward (not that we aren’t moving now). But what exactly will an apology do for us_ stop black on black crime, teenage pregnancy, end high school drop outs? Free our enslaved minds? Or maybe, just maybe it will show just how great this country is to apologize for a wrong an atrocity down years ago.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/18/senate.slavery/index.html
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"and we are not saved..."