Some history shouldn't repeat itself
"The [Holocaust] fills us Germans with shame. I bow before the victims. I bow before the survivors and before those who helped them survive."
~ Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, in a speech delivered to the Isreali parliament on Tuesday
We've always wondered why Americans find it so difficult to publicly say the same about the shameful parts of our history, like enslaving African Americans, killing Native Americans, putting Japanese Americans in concentration camps and enforcing racist Jim Crow laws against African Americans. America has a lot to be proud of, yes. But why is it so hard for many Americans to acknowledge the parts of our history that were just plain wrong?
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I don't think you've effectively demonstrated that, "it [is] so hard for many Americans to acknowledge the parts of our history that were just plain wrong". I also don't think you've demonstrated that the shame Merkel describes is such a good thing for the German body politic. I hope my comments are recognized as good-faith. I'm not harboring some kind of Nazi apologia or anti-semitism. I just don't think the way the Germans flagellate themselves and suppress inquiry (however wrongheaded any individual instance of that inquiry may be) is necessarily such a good thing.