Yawn.
You know, I used to be bothered by the whole "we stole it from the natives" thing.
I felt kind of "dirty American" about it.
Until I took another look at history. Of pretty much everywhere.
In recent decades, a number of "stolen" countries have been given back to the natives. With spectacularly depressing results.
There isn't anything at all useful in the observation that people from Europe invaded the place and displaced most of the native peoples.
Except guilt. For which I have very little use any more.
I have no problem with someone who wants to engage in a little self-flagellation and gratuitous guilt. Go for it. Enjoy the bleakness.
I, on the other hand, will be looking over that-a-way, where the future is.
Things are what they are.
I've never owned a slave or sold one nor even met one. I've never killed an Amerindian or run a tribe off of their lands nor have I cheated them out of their birthright. I've also never cooked babies on spikes.
Somewhere in my family lineage I'm sure there's someone who's done all those things.
And I'm not him.
Things are what they are, and I will not pretend that I owe some kind of debt for the perceived injustices (by today's standards) of folks that lived and died decades or centuries ago.
I have a friend who's a dedicated Darwinist and committed proponent of natural selection. He's also something of an atheist. And he goes on at length about the "social injustice" of slavery and the "invasion" of North America by "the White Man" and how awful it all is.
Of course, he can't see the irony of his positions.
