We Owe Our Children a Big Apology

July 30, 2018

(The Washington Post) – It was only after Germany pressed eugenics to Grant’s logical conclusion that the practice was medically discredited (though not entirely discontinued). Why did so many decent people in America at the time fail to see the cruelty and unfairness of what they were doing? What caused such blindness to democratic and humane values? These questions are comforting to us, because they are accusations against the past. More importantly and less comfortably: What are the social practices we currently encourage or accept that future generations might find inexplicable?