I'm still steamed about Bill Bennett's idiotic comment, and his continuing failure to offer a credible apology for it. Yes, his political career is over; yes, his status as a public intellectual (if he ever had any) is questionable; but I don't really care if he suffers. I want him to make it right.
But here's the next best thing: Having his comment definitively torn to shreds by Louisiana journalist George Curry. Here's an excerpt, but you really should read the whole thing:
Bennett would certainly be tired of walking up and down steps. Without Alexander Miles, the Black inventor of the elevator, that's what Americans would be left with. And if they didn't tire from climbing the steps, they might get tired of shifting gears in their automotive vehicles. Another Black man, Richard Spikes, invented the automatic gearshift.
Of course, an automatic gearshift wouldn't do them any good if they didn't have the spark plugs - invented by Edmond Berger, an African-American -under the hood.
A self-described family values person, Bennett couldn't imagine life without the baby buggy. Without the life of W.H. Richardson, an African-American, Bennett wouldn't have to imagine that kind of life - he would be experiencing it.
Life at home wouldn't be as pleasurable without the air conditioning unit invented by Frederick M. Jones, a Black man. Life without air conditioning would be bad enough, but to live without a refrigerator would be even worse. And that's what Bennett would be doing if J. Standard, an African-American, had been aborted.
If Bennett wanted to flee a burning apartment building, he would have to jump and take his chances. If Blacks hadn't been born, J.W. Winters would not have developed the fire escape ladder.
Cutting the grass would be more of a chore, too. Bennett might have to utilize sling blades instead of using the lawn mower invented by L.A. Burr, an African-American.
An educated person such as William Bennett can appreciate the need for an almanac and he can thank another African-American, Benjamin Banneker, for that. At some point, Bennett uses pencils. The pencil sharpener was invented by J. L. Love, an African-American. Even if the erudite Bennett prefers a fountain pen to a pencil, he would be out of luck if it had not been for Walter B. Purvis, the Black inventor.
Bennett will try to slip out of this by falling back on his statement that using eugenic genocide to reduce crime would be "morally reprehensible." To say that is just to offer a disclaimer; that part of the statement doesn't really matter. All that matters is that he had the audacity to say that slaughtering the firstborn of any ethnicity would yield positive results. To suggest as much is more than "morally reprehensible." The word you're looking for, Mr. Values, is "evil."
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