Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address
It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.
Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things--some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor--who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
Obama's Inaugural address honors settlers, snubs Native Americans
Those who "settled the West" ought to be remembered in the same light as those Israeli settlers who build new settlements in the West Bank of Occcupied Palestine!
Never forget--like the Israeli settlers, the settlers in the "US" West used the full force and fury of the military to take the land they wanted. Even biological weapons in the form of smallpox-infected blankets were used. This was especially infamous in the case of the distribution of smallpox blankets to the Cheyenne, in an effort to exterminate them.
Ask any Palestinian--or any Native American--what it is like to live under settlement. Ask what it is like to have your home bulldozed or burned for the benefit of the settlers on the hill.
No, the likeliest explanation is the standard one. Americans "tamed the wilderness," "settled the West," and created a great nation. Anybody who didn't participate in this narrative is irrelevant at best and un-American at worst.
We don't have to compare Indians to Palestinians to condemn this passage. Hello? The Indians were here before the European invaders. African Americans were brought here against their will. Mexicans were converted into Americans after the US appropriated their land as the spoils of war.
The "lash of the whip" comment is especially odd. Were African slaves given a choice to pack up and "search" for a new life? Or was someone else lashed with a whip in US history? I must be missing something here, because this phrase doesn't make sense to me.
America = action?
None of these ethnic groups were necessarily "the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things." Not only is this passage biased against three large minorities, it's biased toward the classic American pioneer, inventor, and entrepreneur. According to Obama, the nation was founded by men of action, not artists, writers, or thinkers.
One wonders where we got all our American values and principles from. Not from Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, or Thomas Paine, apparently. I guess the people who cut down the trees, killed the buffalo, and stole the Indians' land are the ones we should admire, eh?
Rather than celebrate the "risk-takers" once again--as if we don't celebrate them enough every Columbus Day and Thanksgiving--Obama should've celebrated the people who have endured. The brave but humble people--Indians, blacks, Hispanics, immigrants, and others--who have given the country its strength and dignity. These are the people who tilled the farms, built the cities, and won the wars. While the captains of industry--the oil barons, railroad tycoons, and plantation owners--amassed self-serving wealth and power, the American people fought for liberty and justice for all.
We don't have a great country because the Great White Fathers gave it to us. We have a great country because people like Tecumseh, Frederick Douglass, Crazy Horse, Susan B. Anthony, Standing Bear, Jane Addams, Thurgood Marshall, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Cesar Chavez, Harvey Milk, and Vine Deloria Jr.--along with a few straight white men <g>--fought against the Great White Fathers. They wrested power from the powers-that-be and gave it to the rest of us. They made the American dream a reality and not just, well, a dream.
For more on the subject, see America's Cultural Roots and A Shining City on a Hill: What Americans Believe.
P.S. Unfortunately, the oft-repeated "smallpox-laden blankets" story is mostly a myth. See The Facts About Blankets with Smallpox for details.
Below: The myth...
...and the reality.
7 comments:
"The Indians were here before the European invaders. African Americans were brought here against their will."
You seem completely ignorant of the fact that white ethnic groups such as the Irish and Scots-Irish came to the US to escape genocide and oppression. Plus the Irish and Scots were also slaves, I suggest reading a book entitled To Hell Or to Barbados. Seriously who the hell taught you history?
"I guess the people who cut down the trees"
Who the hell cares about a few logging operations? In the face of Indian genocide that's irrelevant.
"The brave but humble people--Indians, blacks, Hispanics, immigrants, and others--who have given the country its strength and dignity."
You left out the Irish, Scots and other white minorities who suffered discrimination and violence when they arrived here.
"We don't have a great country because the Great White Fathers gave it to us. We have a great country because people like Tecumseh, Frederick Douglass, Crazy Horse, Susan B. Anthony, Standing Bear, Jane Addams, Thurgood Marshall, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Cesar Chavez, Harvey Milk, and Vine Deloria Jr.--along with a few straight white men --fought against the Great White Fathers. They wrested power from the powers-that-be and gave it to the rest of us. They made the American dream a reality and not just, well, a dream."
Whoah whoah, Malcolm x? You do realize that he was a racist right? ANot to mention the NOI is not an actual form of Islam.
"For more on the subject, see America's Cultural Roots and A Shining City on a Hill: What Americans Believe."
I hate to break it to you but your vile bigoted anti-American rants are not exactly credible. I expect that sort of nonsense from some 14 yro with a dim view of the world, but it's a wee bit disturbing when a grown man writes such drivel.
"Whoah whoah, Malcolm x? You do realize that he was a racist right? ANot to mention the NOI is not an actual form of Islam"
He WAS a racist. But toward the end of his life, he shed the racism. He had also parted ways with the NOI to the point where the NOI called for his assassination.
"I hate to break it to you but your vile bigoted anti-American rants are not exactly credible"
I can probably pick nits about some of the names on his list. But he did name some great Americans too. I would probably say that most on the list are great Americans. It is hardly anti-American to celebrate their accomplishments.
"He WAS a racist. But toward the end of his life, he shed the racism. He had also parted ways with the NOI to the point where the NOI called for his assassination."
I have sympathy for the man but at the same time I just can't admire him.
"I can probably pick nits about some of the names on his list. But he did name some great Americans too. I would probably say that most on the list are great Americans. It is hardly anti-American to celebrate their accomplishments."
Yeah I was talking about his cringe inducing 'essays' which include anti-American blanket statements.
Anonymous, you seem completely ignorant of the fact that "immigrants" refers to people such as the Irish and Scots. Well, now I've alleviated your ignorance, and you're welcome.
The sentence I wrote was, "I guess the people who cut down the trees, killed the buffalo, and stole the Indians' land are the ones we should admire, eh?" If you think that ignores America's genocidal actions against Indians, you must have a reading comprehension problem also.
Incidentally, "United States deforestation has caused the destruction of virgin forests by 90 percent since 1600. At the rate of deforestation currently in the United States, only one-fourth of the forests standing today will be standing in 70 years," according to one source. Deforestation is a worldwide problem, in case you're ignorant of that too.
I didn't go into the personal characteristics of any of the people I listed. All I said is that they helped wrest power from the powers-that-be. If you think Malcolm X didn't do that, go ahead and explain why.
Washington and Jefferson helped wrest power from the British powers-that-be even though they owned slaves. Should we omit them from a list of Founding Fathers because they were arguably racists? No, and for the same reason, we shouldn't ignore Malcolm X's accomplishments either.
Finally, it's not bigoted to complain about the documented problems in America's culture, genius. I suggest you look up the word "bigotry" if you don't know what it means.
"Anonymous, you seem completely ignorant of the fact that "immigrants" refers to people such as the Irish and Scots. Well, now I've alleviated your ignorance, and you're welcome."
You left out White minorities when you mentioned Blacks and Hispanics; but in that case my mistake. And you have left White minorities (Jews for example) and poor Euro-Americans out of the picture before for example:
"Whites have more opportunities than minorities to achieve the American Dream."
So I suppose I just jumped to a conclusion oh well. *Shrugs.*
"The sentence I wrote was, "I guess the people who cut down the trees, killed the buffalo, and stole the Indians' land are the ones we should admire, eh?" If you think that ignores America's genocidal actions against Indians, you must have a reading comprehension problem also."
Wrong, I was saying that I don't regard the logging operations that happened way back when to be a tragedy. Which isn't to say that we shouldn't oppose the deforestation that's currently taking place.
"Finally, it's not bigoted to complain about the documented problems in America's culture, genius. I suggest you look up the word "bigotry" if you don't know what it means."
I'm referring to such lovely statements as these:
"He confirms that Americans are ignorant or shortsighted about the world around them."
That's not a critique of US culture(s) that's an anti-American blanket statement which of course is an insult to Indians. You must have your head in the clouds if you can't see how harmful garbage like that quote is to Indians (and that's just one example I brought up because the focus of this blog is Native America).
Re "That's not a critique of US culture(s) that's an anti-American blanket statement": You couldn't be more wrong if you tried. Since you didn't understand me the last time I explained it, I'll explain it again.
Are you seriously arguing that Americans aren't ignorant about world affairs? That's pretty funny considering that most Americans admit to such ignorance.
Here, educate yourself on the typical American mindset:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070822064927.3gb131i5&show_article=1
Two-thirds of US adults admit to being in the dark about political issues outside the United States, and only a third are well-versed in US politics, the results of a poll published Tuesday showed.
"Well over half (57 percent) say they do not like learning about political issues in other countries," and 32 percent expressed a lack of interest for homespun politics, the Harris Poll group said.
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200109/msg00385.html
"For decades we've been reading about how American schoolchildren can't find Mexico or Canada on a map, and yet nothing seems to change," says Ransdell. "These people who don't know the difference between Switzerland and Swaziland then become the main consumers of news. And in poll after poll they tell us that they want less foreign news and more of what I call 'selfish journalism'--which stocks to buy, sex and beauty tips, 10 steps to a healthier colon and so on. It becomes this horrible feedback loop where people are sent out of our schools in a state of complete ignorance of the rest of the world and then, maybe because they're embarrassed, clamor for even less information on something they know almost nothing about."
Re "I'm arguing that the entire American population are not ignorant": Are you really so dense that you don't understand generalizations? When I say something like "Americans are ignorant," it's a statement about Americans in general. It includes many or most Americans but not all of them.
Next time you think I mean all Americans, go ahead and quote me using the word "all." In other words, put up or shut up. Until then, stop wasting our time with this semantic nonsense.
Anyway, there's your critique of US culture for you. Feel free to post your apology here.
P.S. If you falsely claim that I said all Americans are ignorant one more time, I'll have to delete the falsehood. Don't bother writing unless you have something new to say.
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