If only we could deal with this issue of reparations not as Democrats or Republicans nor as white or black people but as Americans. If we could, I think we might proceed as follows:

1. We'd review the history and goals of reparations:

a) That these payments were a formal recognition of severe wrongdoing by government.

b) That the monies were to be used to ameliorate the damages suffered by the people offended and help bring them back to whole   as fast as possible.

c) That the government change the circumstance that caused these tragedies.

2. We then need to evaluate what has been done over the last 150 years to meet these goals and determine what, if anything else, should be done. 

The hard part is to find a way to help those offended to be whole, since they are not here. The question then becomes, do we do nothing or find a substitute goal? A stipend to surviving families is on the table; how does this square with making their ancestors whole? Before we fund anything, we must know what it will do to meet reparation goals.

If it's a payout for pain and suffering, then call it something else and state clearly what are its goals. But don't call it reparations.

Matthew Borrelli

East Lyme