More Skeletons in the Empires Closet: Sterilization

This past week, there was a blip on the radar which moved on rather quickly. It leaves me wondering, if there is nothing to be gained (such as an award winning story would) then a story may not make it far. Then again, the news story in question was one involving the past transgressions of government, in this case, North Carolina and a forced sterilization program. (eugenics)

Far too often, the public reply to such stories is that this happened a long time ago to be of any concern, it doesn't  apply to me or it was no big deal. Let's consider diseases (e.g.  AIDS, cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson) that attack us as human beings and consider another though in this respect. Until it occurs to you or someone very close, it is of little importance, or is it? It is very important that the general public pay attention to what has occurred here so that it doesn't occur in the future.

Just after WWII, from 1929 to 1974, the state of North Carolina forcibly sterilized over 7,000 residents to include men, women and children. There were no color barriers either, this was an across the board sterilization program by government showing their callous nature. Indeed, there is no amount that could repay for such cruelty.

Government can and has always done what it wants. In a just, correct and civilized society, it must be made to answer to the people and should not be allowed to continue to sweep everything under the rug. No apology nor payment could ever cleanse the air of the unjust acts committed in the name of science. Ironically, I had just finished watching the new film release, 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes', when it occurred to me that the experimentation in the film was no different than it was in reality. Again, big government treating the population as pawns in a chess game and no one is immune.

This brings to light another sterilization evil perpetrated by the American government. That of the female sterilizations in Puerto Rico. Again, between the 1930's and 1970, 1/3 of the the female population in Puerto Rico had undergone sterilization. Whether one wants to admit it or not, control of a population that was viewed as inferior and substandard did occur at the hands of the U.S., a role model to the world?
Eugenics, an atrocity that needs to be brought to the forefront and the hope is that the North Carolina story will stimulate interest and further research in the subject.

Note:

"Sterilization could be applied to an ever widening circle of social discards, beginning always with the criminal, the diseased and the insane, and extending gradually to types which may be called weaklings rather than defectives, and perhaps ultimately to worthless race types."

From The Passing of the Great Race by Madison Grant, co-founder American Eugenics Society (AES)

Wikipedia on AES