For starters, I believe that an apology for slavery is an absolute must. I would like to see it written right into our Constitution, for I believe that is the only way to cleanse this document of the stench of once having contained such things as the Constitutional Compromise which so hideously counted a person of African descent as a mere 3/5th of a human being.

However this must be followed up with reparations - which means to repair the damage - for without that, an apology is nothing more than hollow words. As we each know from our own life's experience, when we sincerely regret something we did, we are impelled not only to apologize, but to do everything in our power to make amends in every way possible for the harm we brought about. Any apology not accompanied by the willingness to repair the injury is a fake.

African Americans themselves have presented their views about who should pay reparations and how, but I want to state my ideas about where the money for reparations and restitution could come from because I've seen that all too often my fellow whites get so hung up on the logistical question of how that they skip over the question of why. To show that the question of how we can pay isn't as formidable as it's often made out to be so we can move on to grappling with what I believe is an even more fundamental and necessary question - Is it right and just that we pay reparations for the barbaric act we committed against persons of African ancestry in enslaving them? - I present my ideas on this subject.

The chief entity that must be held responsible for reparations to descendants of slavery is the United States Government. If the government hadn't authorized and supported it through law, the crime of chattel slavery would not have been able to be committed in the first place. The government profited enormously from slavery, as it collected taxes from plantation owners on the money they made from unpaid enslaved labor. Huge amounts of money poured in on the cotton industry alone.

And since emancipation, the US government has essentially done everything in its power to maintain white supremacy and obstruct the empowerment of African Americans. Every step toward justice has been extremely hard won by Black persons. They've had to take to the streets, shed their blood, launch boycotts, wage court battles - literally fight tooth and nail on every front to gain even the slightest progress towards receiving what should have been rightfully theirs in the first place.

• Reallocating tens of billions of dollars from the country's bloated military budget
• Ceasing to engage in unjust aggression against other countries. Just think of how much could have been accomplished if the government hadn't declared war on Afghanistan and Iraq but had, instead, put those resources towards reparations
• Ending all efforts to militarize space
• Closing tax loopholes for the rich and for giant corporations, thus making tens of billions of additional dollars available
• Doing away with corporate subsidies - the generous corporate welfare our tax dollars have been supporting. In one year alone, our government gives at least $125 billion in tax breaks and subsidies to large corporations. From now on that money could be collected and directed towards the needs of decedents of slavery

This is a mere fraction of the ways our government could start drawing together a sizable fund for reparations. I'm sure many other ways can be found as well.

In keeping with its recent apology for other injustices it has committed, I agree with those who believe the Catholic Church should be asked to pay restitution for their part in the slave trade. Writes Molefi Asante, the noted scholar and professor of African American Studies at Temple University:

So profitable was the European slave trade that the Roman Catholic Church entered the business as a grantor of commercial privilege to prevent Christian nations from engaging in fratricidal wars of access to the African Coast. Usually the Pope signed an agreement with a slaving nation which insured that nation's right to a specific region of Africa. A fee was paid to the church for that asiento. Since no European nation exercised complete hegemony over others, the Church became - and remained for several hundred years - the primary moral sanctioner for the brutal institution of slave trading.

The Catholic Church was paid about $25 for each captured African. Therefore, in addition to paying (with interest) into a reparations fund, the millions they made in this way, it could be considered whether they - who ought to have been leading the fight against this atrocity instead of organizing it - should pay even more in penance for the shocking immorality of their actions.

As various Black reparationists are already doing, private estates, companies and industries which profited most from the unpaid labor of enslaved Africans could also be identified, and arrangements made wherever possible to collect restitution from them. This inquiry could take place within our borders and also reach far beyond, for there are many foreign companies - as well as governments of nations such as Portugal, Spain, England, and France - which participated in and benefited enormously from the European slave trade.

Many companies not only profited directly from the actual trading in human beings, but indirectly from all that enslaved labor produced - cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, and other products. Early American industry was based on these, and railroads and shipping companies, the banking industry, and many other businesses made huge profits from the commerce generated by them as well.

Numerous industries that profited from the enslavement are already being uncovered. Take the insurance industry, for instance. Attorney Deadria Farmer-Paellmann has researched Aetna Inc., the number one US life and health insurer, and discovered that profits made from early policies taken out by owners on the lives of enslaved persons formed the base of the company to become a multibillion dollar corporation. These life insurance policies, issued in the 1850's, she says, "were one of the first lines of business underwritten by the Hartford, Connecticut-based insurer, which now has 47 million customers worldwide and annual revenues of $26 billion." And she states, "They have a moral obligation to apologize and share that wealth with the heirs of the Africans they helped maintain in slavery."

In 2002 Farmer-Paellman filed the first class-action lawsuit seeking compensation from US companies for profiting from the slave trade. The suit, which was filed in behalf of all living descendants of enslaved Africans in this country, seeks unspecified damages not only from Aetna Inc., but the FleetBoston Financial Corporation and the CSX Corporation because they or their parent companies profited from enslaved labor. Her investigation has identified at least 40 other US corporations still benefiting from their unjust practices during slavery, and many of them have had lawsuits brought against them as well.

The British firm, Lloyds of London, could be looked at, too, for it also got its start and made a fortune insuring slave ships. Then, of course, it would also be easy to find out what companies specialized in building ships specifically designed for this barbaric trade in "human cargo" and go after restitution from them too. The possibilities of holding businesses accountable are endless.

Along with industries that should be targeted for some form of restitution because of profits they made from slavery in the past, there are additional corporations which could also be required to pay because of the massive revenues they've reaped from the financial straits many Blacks are in now as a long-range result of slavery. For example, this economic hardship has enabled companies such as McDonald's, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Wendy's - and their stockholders - to make billions of dollars employing (some say exploiting) young African Americans at disgracefully low wages while also selling their inexpensive products to the Black community - often to the detriment of their health - because many Blacks couldn't afford to eat at higher-priced restaurants. The ongoing misfortune of millions of African Americans has been their good fortune, so they, too, should become major contributors to the reparations and restitution effort.

I would also like to see every big corporation doing business in Black communities - such as Disney, Starbucks, Old Navy, and Blockbuster Video which recently opened large stores in Harlem - required to develop partnerships with the communities so they actually do what they profess to do: put as much into the community as they take out. Though they claim to serve the community by creating badly needed jobs, in truth they don't provide that many, and the jobs they do provide usually pay very little. It's a sheer case of throwing around a few pennies to disguise the fact that they're carting out big dollars - dollars that should be staying with the Black-owned establishments they're displacing. This hemorrhaging should be stopped through something in the field of restitution.

So these are some of my beginning thoughts on how we could begin to pull together the money to pay reparations and restitution. It must also be said that reparations will have to take in much more than money: it will have to include as a central feature the restoration of all human rights to the descendants of enslaved Africans. They must have their identity as a people restored and recognized throughout the world with all human rights attached. This restoration of identity is crucial. Any offer of reparations which does not include that is totally inadequate.

As a person who benefits daily in more ways than I even know from the iniquity of slavery and from the ensuing white privilege that continues to rule this nation today, I will always feel ashamed until the horrendous crime committed by my people has been redressed. I am more grateful than I can express to every person who began working as early as the mid 1860s to bring reparations about, as well as to all those who continue the effort so persistently now. And I say let the thought about reparations go as far and wide as the crime itself. It will help cleanse America!