FAQ - Inheritance

FAQ 3- What if my family wasn't here and didn't participate?

The Provocative Question:

The Short Answer:
Responsibility is a matter of citizenship.

My response is that everyone who accepts American citizenship also accepts responsibility for the actions and inactions of the state. Furthermore they inherit all the good and all the bad done in the name of the United States of America.

Then I go on to cite examples. No American is required to rewrite the the Bill of Bights, for example. We inherit its benefits and flaws as well as the responsibility to defend it or amend it.

As another example, no living American had anything to do with the Louisiana Purchase or the annexation of California or allocating the spoils of the Spanish American war. Nevertheless you can live in Louisiana, California or Puerto Rico and still have the benefits of American life.

Even if (and especially if) you disagree fundamentally with the premise of any political act done in the name of the United States of America, you are responsible to it.

So. You are an American citizen whether you like what America did or not. If your response is to dodge the responsibility for dirty deeds done by America, then you are complicit in the crime. You have an opportunity (and responsibility) in this democracy to state your political opposition to what is morally wrong.

Anyone who abdicates the moral aspect of citizenship implies that they live here in America just for the money. Isn't it ironic that many of the reactionaries against reparations have reneged on the moral component and begged to be spared from paying any money?

Since there are people who are very passionately against the idea of any money coming out of their pocket in the form of taxes, we can use reparations as a litmus test for abdication of citizenship and tax revolt. Assume that reparations go forward and you were to revoke your citizenship by refusing to pay the tax. How does the payment of reparations, as an expensive evil deed done by the United States government rank with all other evil deeds? We should all be most closely familiar with the Vietnam War...