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“a little snowball and Legion is crying like a girl. *thwump!* OWWWWW!!!”
To be fair, it had a CHUNK of ice in the middle of it…It was my WMD!! ; )
HA HA 500!!
I see nothing to take issue with in MM’s 8:20 post either. But, as I said, I don’t think your positions are at all mutually exclusive.
Wow- a little snowball and Legion is crying like a girl. *thwump!* OWWWWW!!!
I was saving the icy one for lech! : P
“Hey!
That was ice, cobble.”
Oh crap! I’m sorry! I thought that was the powdery one! Musta somehow picked up the wrong one. ((((Throws soft snowball at legion!)))
Agreed- the Indian Removal Act was a tragedy of epic proportions.
Legion- the Trail of Tears was only one incident of many. The displacement of tribes throughout the country, the forced attendance to White/ Christian schools, the denial of their rights to practice their religion, the breaking of treaties over and over again, the theft of their sacred artifacts and destruction of their families.
It’s disgusting that Custer is still considered a hero by many today.
And the great irony is that Andrew Jackson would NEVER have wanted his picture to appear on U.S. currency!!
And I’ve read that, to this day, Native Americans (don’t know the percentage) refuse to use $20 bills – or do their very best to.
Legion, I can’t stay on this any longer, but really…. Who said living in the USA was the same as Iraq or North Korea? Not me.
Long story short to all that you’ve said – so what if we rescued someone’s national bacon, so what if we are top dog? So what if we are influential? All of that is great, and all contribute to making America what it is today, and I fully agree we are a great and exceptional nation. But we are NOT more exceptional than many other great nations. What good are the bragging rights to be more exceptional-er than everyone else? Why the insistence that we are somehow more special than everyone else?
That, to me, leads us down the familiar road of arrogance, followed by some manifest destiny to shape the paths of others, all for their own good, of course. That was the path of the Roman Empire on down to Nazi Germany. They thought they were better than everyone else, too. Different times, different places, different peoples, of course. But the Romans thought their Pax Romana made them better, the Nazis thought their Aryan blood made them better. If we think our exceptionalism, or our capitalism, or our superior morality, or our military might makes us better than everyone else, then we’re going to be in big trouble down the line.
Saying so does not make me less of a patriot, or good American, and does not make me less proud of my country, its people, or its achievements. If you think it does, then that is your issue, not mine.
Good night.