[WARNING EXTREMELY ABRIDGED VERSION OF HISTORY]

Many today, in the United States, will be shooting fireworks to celebrate our independence from the Red Coats- Great Britain.

Today is the day that all *white* *landowning* *men* were freed from the tyranny of the British....and the unlawful taxes...of those damn taxes...still a sore spot for many.

Now we can begin to build our own independent economy with the help of Indian land, and slave labor...tis how the wealth of this country was founded.

Women and children, seen but not heard, they became the trophies of our great society. The poor were pitied and offered jobs which would years later be taken away on account of child labor laws, and labor rights, and labor unions, and health conditions, to be replaced many years later by undocumented, cheap, and outsourced labor.

The wealth continues to build.

The industrial north and the slave-supported south were soon at odds in a cultural struggle between those progressive minds of harvard and other schools, and those bible thumping families of the southern estates. Meanwhile settlers moving west engaged in crimes of theft and murder and were always weary of those savage Indians who were threatening to take the land that God obviously made available to white men. New states were soo formed, trades were made with france, and whether slaves were allowed or not became a point of contention, and new laws were formed to prevent future slave states.

And the civil war occurs with the south defecting from the north because they need their slaves to work, and cook, and raise their children (which is why the southern accent has a twang- they got the twang from growing up around slaves). We know how that ends though- Lincoln decides to free the slaves and crush the southern economy (which the south viewed as punishment) and was really a military and political tactic more than it was a human rights initiative. To this day the south remains skeptical of the north and its progressive ideals, and proudly wave the confederate flag.

Meanwhile blacks are given some rights for a time, which are then reversed again, and the Jim Crow laws take effect segregating anything that was not already segregated. The colored poor and the white poor were further pitted against one another by those with purely politically strategic motives.

Meanwhile women were wanting the right to vote and there ensued a subtle struggle between the rights of women and the civil liberties of colored folk...1920 women could vote...

During all this time the Indians (in different stages depending on tribe and treaty) are causing too much trouble to simply be "killed off", so they are rounded up on ever-shrinking reservations and children are kidnapped and forced to attend gov't and missionary schools where they are taught to hate, despise, and forget their culture and origins. And to this day, the trauma of those generations lives in alcoholism, violence, poverty, corruption, mistrust, and slowing disappearing languages... (BUT, TO NOTE, in recent years many great things have been happening within their community).

Well, 1964 pops around and civil rights are granted to colored folk...and four years later the Indian Civil Rights act was also passed.

Well, I would go on but am tired and this seems to be where the history books stop counting American atrocities anyways, so I'll leave you with that. (Not mentioning other wars, atrocities over seas, labor  union fights, discrimination, immigrant troubles and rights, crimes, drugs, poor vs rich, etc etc etc etc)

Well, on account of my German immigrant blood I may be celebrating today, and so may be my Irish-Scott immigrant (Appalachian) blood (though they faced a lot of discrimination back in the early days...), and on account of my black blood I'm proud that we finally have a president who is not a white male-, BUT on account of my Indian blood I'm not so happy.

Fireworks are generally nice though, and I thank the Chinese for popularizing them all those years ago.

Happy 4th of July for the USA... or not.

This post was last modified: 07-05-2012 03:38 AM by sg1008.

grossly misinformed on a lot of your "facts"

which facts are those?

Also, note the disclaimer:

EXTRA DISCLAIMER: I don't actually claim to be citing "facts"...its my general dramatic impression of USA history.

Off-topic but am I the only one who read "landowning" as "lawnmowing?" xDDDDD

American history: a charming story about the difference between theory and practice.  Support the theory, create the practice.  

LOL, no you are not.

America: Where lawnmowing is freedom.

This post was last modified: 07-05-2012 04:46 AM by sg1008.