Like many other countries, we’ve hidden our ugliest history in the backs of closets. We have written phony history books and made sure our kids read them. Now we wonder how come they don’t understand history.
A good start would be to teach them what actually happened. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Andrew Jackson President of the good old U.S.A. wiped out entire tribes of Natives. But that was only one part of the slaughter. They kidnapped children and beat them until they were “American.” More to the point, too terrified to be anything else.
Does that sound familiar?
Then, of course, there was slavery, over which we fought the bloodiest war ever in this country, followed by a never-ending cruel inequality that still remains and continues — with the help of our disgusting president — to grow.
And let’s not forget interning Japanese citizens — many of whom were born here — during World War 2.
We’ve always felt we were morally superior to Those Other Countries who slaughtered and mass murdered people for whatever idiotic reason they held. Yet here we are (and were) doing the same.
We haven’t started killing immigrants yet, but who knows? Trump is just being Trump, so if he thinks it’s a good idea, I’m sure his sycophants will step right up and follow his orders. Or maybe they’ll do it just for fun. Nothing would surprise me.
You can bet Sean Hannity will be explaining how it’s not even happening anyway. And 28-30% of all Americans will smile because mass murder sounds like a good idea to them. They will volunteer for jobs in “the camps.” A job is a job.
With a president who has so little conscience that he thinks kidnapping foreign children is good politics, does murdering foreigners if he thinks it might help him get reelected sound too far out? Assuming he isn’t planning to bypass that whole annoying election process, that is.
A couple of weeks ago, he said (who knows what he is really saying?) we are returning to the old-fashioned method we’ve been using for the past 50 years. We’ll stop refugees at our border and say “Sorry, no room. Go home.” This is what we used to before you-know-who moved to the White House.
Someone asked me why we can’t make room for them. No idea. This country is built on the sweat of hungry immigrants, but we seem to have lost our way. As long as we have borders, we are obliged to keep track of who comes and goes across them.
I’m too far down the line of brilliant thinkers who have turned our world into whatever it currently is, but don’t you wonder ever what would happen if we didn’t have artificial lines around “countries” and lived in a single world? Then we could just hate each other for personal reasons.
Categories: American history, Conscience and morality, evil, History, Immigration
Yes indeed, Canada has a shameful past too!
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Many countries — maybe most countries — have a shameful past. And few acknowledge it. But we’ve got a shameful PRESENT and that’s even worse.
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I hear that. Ours isn’t much better.
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Same thing happened in Canada. Shameful!
Leslie
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What more can you say, unfortunately true. I just do not understand that this fascist moron can hold the job. Unfortunately such dictators always have their parasites.
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Parasites? Disciples? Stepford women and men? They are all drinking the kool-Aid.
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So true. I hope people are reading and thinking.
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Sadje — I also have that hope. THINKING..is the big one along with reading factual history.
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If people used their brains instead of relying on what the media is telling them, things can be much better.
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Sadje, as a retired TV News reporter, I agree with you.
I used to tell people they shouldn’t just accept what I reported (many did!). I always read several newspapers every day, listened and watched many news and commentary outlets, and chatted with newsmakers to get a well rounded sense of what was going on. That’s info gathering 101. For everyone — or should be.
These days, people are quick to engage you with non substantiated news. It’s hard to have a civil conversation.
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So right. What matters and is important never makes to the news anyway
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So sadly true. If we can get along between Texas and Arizona or Minnesota and Wisconsin, I fail to see why we can’t get along cross-border and prosper. We have got to get this bully and his followers out of power.
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His followers still seem mesmerized no matter how outrageous his words or deeds. That is a scary and familiar story.
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