Home > Top of the Morning > Top of the morning

Top of the morning

Post on January 5, 2009 by 5 Comments »

The state budget crisis may not be the only thing standing in the way of compensation for the surviving victims of the state’s horrific eugenics program. Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight says that he has “no personal opinion” about it because he doesnt’ know enough.

No personal opinion? Thousands of people were sterilized against their will by the State of North Carolina into the early 1970s. That seems like something pretty easy to have an opinion about.

House Speaker Joe Hackney supports a study committee’s recommendation to give each survivor $20,000 if the money is available. That’s much better, but still not good enough.

It is the lawmakers’ job to find the money. People who suffered horribly at the hands of the state have waited long enough.

Possibly related posts:

  1. Ethics committee to examine LaRoque
  2. Wanted: State House grammarian
  3. LaRoque hires one of NC’s top criminal defense attorneys
  4. Hackney: Amendment places NC “unfavorably in the national spotlight”

This entry was posted in Top of the Morning. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments (Closed):5

  1. AdamL
    January 5, 2009 at 8:06 am

    Would anyone be shocked if instead of compensating victims directly the state built a multi-million dollar eugenics museum in Dare County?

  2. IBXer
    January 5, 2009 at 8:56 am

    I turned 5 in 1980 and my parents did not live here in the 1970s. Care to explain why money should be extracted from my paycheck to pay for the sins of your fathers?

    When you say the state should pay for these horrible actions, you need to remember that the “state” won’t pay a nickle, the taxpayers are the ones footing the bill. Millions of whom had nothing to do with eugenics.

    Reparations are an unjust answer to this injustice.

  3. AdamL
    January 5, 2009 at 9:11 am

    People were officially sterilized by the state — these were not actions taken by a few rogue doctors. In fact, people sterilized outside of the state system are not eligible for reparations. It doesn’t matter what age you were when the state incurred this debt to eugenics victims, the state still owes the debt.

    If the state still paid interest on a bond floated in the 1960s you might consider it unjust since your parents weren’t here to approve the bond — but the state is still the same entity and must make the required payments.

  4. Adam Searing
    January 5, 2009 at 2:04 pm

    The 1970s were when many public schools were built in NC to deal with the increasing growth of the state. Many of those schools are still in use today. I guess since IBXer’s parents didn’t contribute taxes to pay for those schools, IBXer would be fine with their kids being barred from attending any public school built before 1980.

  5. IBXer
    January 6, 2009 at 9:34 am

    From what I can tell, the voters did not have a say in the eugenics programs. If anyone should pay those debts to the victims, it should be the government officials who enacted the programs.

    I would never allow my child to be subjected to the fiasco you call “public school” in this state.