Very Sorry

I still haven't managed to get back to this with the regularity I would like. I will be back here soon though - promise.
However, while we are still on the subject of apologies there has been a lot of media attention of late given to the 'should we apologise for slavery' debate. I - of course - say no, 'we' should not because 'we' cannot - for one thing 'we' weren't around at the time. There are lots of places I could link to but this is I think revealing, especially as it came during the BBC's rather excessive liberal-left guilt-fest over the whole slavery business.
There is, though, a wider point - I think - and I did originally put it in a comment on this by Longrider, but it seems his comments are not working for some reason, so I reprint it here:

I've said this before about such things as 'affirmative action' and suchlike - and I think the same principle applies here - you cannot correct an old injustice by creating a new injustice.
So just as having quotas and targets for previously discriminated-against minorities creates an injustice against those not covered by those quotas and targets who apply for those positions, or whatever, 'reparations' for slavery would unjustly penalise those of us who - as you so rightly say - were not involved in it in any way, and even our ancestors at the time would have have little or no say in the continuation of the trade and would have received little or no economic benefit from it. So any form of 'reparations' paid, for example, out of our taxes would just become a new injustice - perpetrated by those 'well-meaning' fools who call for it - on people wholly innocent of the original 'crime'.

We should - of course - learn from the past and what we see as its moral failings such as slavery, the holocaust, religious wars and so much more. However, it seems wrong to me to wallow in these things or blame these things for the way things are now.