SF Examiner Publishes My Anti-Victimology LTE

Dear Everyone;

The Board Supervisors passed legislation requiring contractors with the City to show they did not profit from slavery. Then make a voluntary contribution to an education fund. I wrote an LTE pointing out the flaws and how SF wouild become a slave profiteer itself.

Ron Getty
SF Libertarian

http://tinyurl.com/yfcbx9

The Examiner
Nov 2, 2006
Slavery shakedown
Venal victimology comes to The City. The supervisors approved a slavery disclosure ordinance [“Law requiring city contractors to disclose links is passed,” Nov 1] requiring city contractors to prove they didn’t profit from slavery. I am not nor have I been a slave owner. Supervisor Sophie Maxwell and blacks living today have not been slaves and are not slaves. Nobody owes a penny for slavery, which ended 140 years ago.
The supervisors concerned about slave profiteers passed shortsighted legislation. There’s no railroad compensation for the Chinese falsely induced to come to “Golden Mountain” to be laborers under slavelike conditions. It leaves out Catholic mission-era churches, which exploited and destroyed countless California Indian tribes.
The flawed legislation makes The City itself a slave profiteer — this from the “voluntary” shakedown fund donation to pay for education and development programs “designed to ameliorate the effects of slavery” on San Francisco residents.
Ron Getty
The City

http://tinyurl.com/vmjlj

Joshua Sabatini, The Examiner
Nov 1, 2006

Law requiring city contractors to disclose slavery links is passed
SAN FRANCISCO - Banks, clothing manufacturers and insurance companies will have to disclose any past connections to the slave trade if they want to do business with the city of San Francisco.
The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a slavery era disclosure ordinance Tuesday that gives city contractors nine months to prove under oath that they searched for historical documents that would show ties to the slave trade and the results of that search.
“It’s important that this country and San Francisco apologize and are aware of the slavery. We cannot just let it go and assume it didn’t happen,” said Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, author of the ordinance.
Insurance polices, loan documents and other records show some companies that are still around today profited from slavery.
While there are no penalties should a contractor reveal ties to the slave trade, contractors are encouraged to donate money into a fund that will be established under the legislation. The fund will be used to pay for educational programs and developments “designed to ameliorate the effects of slavery” on San Francisco residents.
All companies that provide financial, insurance or textile services for The City are covered by the legislation.
The legislation follows passage of the state’s first slavery era accountability ordinance, which required all insurance companies to research their archives and provide the state with any information that linked them to the slave industry.
Other cities have similar ordinances, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland and Berkeley.
It’s unclear if any of The City’s contractors had ties to the slave trade. The City has contracts with at least 10 textile companies and has more than $1 billion deposited in interest-bearing accounts in a number of banks, including Bank of America.
“The Bank of America is currently examining its records to determine if it participated or profited from slavery,” Maxwell said.