Parting Thoughts on Slave Reparations

This partial transcript of Fox News Sunday, September 9, 2001 was provided by the Federal Document Clearing House. Click here to order the complete transcript.

TONY SNOW, HOST: News reports indicate that Jesse Jackson intends to revive his  moribund political career by stumping for the cause of racial reparations. 

Here's my advice:  Don't do it.  The idea is not only pathetic, it's evil, and here's why. 

It's not designed to create harmony, just the opposite.  It pits black folk against non-black folk.  It turns the government into a hired robber, snatching wealth forcefully from some people and giving it to others.  And it does nothing to eradicate long-simmering tensions between whites and blacks. 

You know what it will do?  It'll make Jesse Jackson, Johnnie Cochran and some other millionaires even richer, and would make the rest of us poorer in spirit. 

Worst of all, it would set off a frenzy of lawsuits and countersuits, as people tried to use the courts as a device for rewriting history. 

Nobody would be safe, and nobody would rest easy.  And several generations from now, some enterprising agitators would go to court seeking damages for the harm our own miserable racial politics had wrought. 

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