What a beautiful dream we possess about who we are as a nation. I am in agreement with John F. Kennedy on one point in particular....We, as a nation, should look carefully at what we are and what we aimed at being, we should read the words on the base of the Statue of Liberty, we should read the Preamble and the Constitution and many of the writings of our founding fathers. We should look at things that never were and we should stand up and shout, "Why NOT become who we wanted to be?". If we did that, we would at least come a lot closer to living up to our declarations.

Self satisfaction is the enemy. A people who refuse to acknowledge their mistakes and inequities will make NO progress. They will instead wither and decline as a power in the world. You cannot stand still as a nation or as a human being. You will either advance or decline. History has proven that. We have much to be proud of in the United States and we should never forget it. We also have made mistakes and we should not forget them either.

When the Dutch first came to the the area later to become the United States, around the turn of the 1600s, they came here to make money off the fur trade, purely and simply. The French, Spanish and the English were motivated by the same reasons of finance. Of the group that came in 1620, approximately one-third were what we call Pilgrims seeking religious freedom. One of the first thing the Pilgrims did upon landing was to make laws restricting the freedom of religion for others. Before that, on their second day on these shores, the Pilgrims robbed an Indian home and a grave. These were the people who came here to escape religious persecution and unfair treatment.

What was interesting, and to me very sad, is that the people who were here when those white men came, had more personal and religious freedoms in their societies than we have EVER had as a nation, including the present day. They met the first whites who came on a friendly basis. They taught them how to grow food and what food grew best here. They gave them land to live on.

We, as humans, have a tendency to become so excited about our own ideas that we never even consider that others may have had better ideas before us. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and others were not so afflicted. They made a study of the Iroquois League that was functioning well when they wrote the Articles of Confederation. They studied it for practical reasons. They were smart men and saw how that confederation of nations functioned. They both wrote several times about it. When it came time to form the ideas and write the papers forming the United States, they invited chiefs of those nations to speak before a fledgling Congress on how their system worked. They used much of what they learned from the Iroquois League in forming our government.

We also forget, that this Constitution that some of us think should never be altered, originally gave voting rights only to white, male property owners.

And what did we do as a fledgling nation seeking haven on new shores to the people who already lived there? How did we apply our nobility of spirit to their circumstance? How deep did our interest go in the principles of equality and justice for ALL?

Well, This is the hard part. We proceeded to rob the land of all that fed and sheltered them. We killed the wildlife, we cut down the forests and we plundered. We took over their farmlands and told them they could not trespass and hunt there any longer. We shared our diseases with them. No, not just accidentally, some of our more enterprising early citizens, upon discovering the Indians had no natural immunity to some white diseases, decided to help their land-grabbing cause along by giving and trading smallpox infected blankets to the Indians. Several sources site American Indian population drops of 95% in the first 25 years after white men appeared on the North American continent. And what did we do to the few that were left? We sold them as slaves to foreign nations. Not a scattered few. The city of Charleston, SC sold more than 10,000 American Indian slaves in one year alone.

Then we invented reservations. We took a people who had no prisons (they thought prisons were cruel and inhuman punishment and were shocked at the barbarism of the whites who had invented such a system) and we drew invisible lines and put soldiers there to make sure they remained within lines they could not see, let alone understand. We created national "welfare" to keep them there. We told them we would feed and clothe them. What little we did send was usually either rotten or stolen by the crooked agents paid to "care" for the Indians we had imprisoned. If they sneaked out to hunt fresh meat for their families, we tracked them down and either put them behind actual bars or we shot them then and there. In many cases we did not even allow them to dwell in the habitat they were used to. We sent forest Indians into deserts and plains, we sent plains Indians into Florida prisons.

Speaking of soldiers, I have heard many, when confronted by the facts of what we did, dismiss it with "Well, that's what happens to a conquered people." There were few tribes conquered by the military. Even fewer were conquered by HONORABLE military tactics. We called chiefs and warriors in to make treaties under a white flag and then murdered or imprisoned them. When the meetings did proceed normally and ended in signed treaties, we broke them. In one case we broke three treaties in 7 years. Three treaties that promised that the land in question belonged to the tribe "as long as the grass grows and the rivers flow". There were hundreds of treaties broken by the US and the records are very clear about that. That is one reason today's Supreme Court makes some of the rulings it has in the last few years.

Some people say it is all in the past. It is not. Even if it was, any honorable person would admit the need that we acknowledge our past in hopes of not making the same mistakes again. IMO only cowards and liars evade the truth. Most American Indians live far below the poverty level today. No. It is NOT by choice. We stole their culture and failed to provide a new one. We have made some efforts and where we have it has helped them to succeed in our culture. I do not believe in reparations. I DO believe in living up to our responsibilities and taking responsibility for our past mistakes. No, maybe you didn't commit any of these atrocities, nor even your father or grandfather, .........so what? If you are an American your country did them and you bear part of the responsibility of correcting them. You didn't write the laws that guarantee your freedoms either, but you want the benefits of them, I will bet.

People think I am angry about this issue. I HOPE I am angry at all injustice and bigotry. I am an American. That is who we ARE. We champion justice and equality for all. Anger is not my primary reaction though. Not so long ago, I was reading a history book over my breakfast in a local restaurant. It moved me to tears that I thought I was hiding. As I left, a man who had seen was standing behind me in line. He said, "That must be a great book." I smiled and answered, "It is the saddest story ever told. It's a history book."

I am not one who favors changing our national anthem to America the beautiful. While the ideas it expresses maybe be more attractive than the militaristic Star Spangled banner, they are not TRUE. At least the anthem we have now comes closer to truth. "Thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears?" Give me a break. Countless tears have been shed and rightfully so in some cases.

To me nothing can equal the sadness of the history of the human race and it's inhuman treatment of it's own species. As the old Sunday School song plays in my mind, I shed tears, not of anger, but of despair......... "Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight..........." . Some of the greatest words of freedom come from the minorities, America, there is a reason for that.

� Angelia ([email protected])