ARE WE QUALIFIED TO SAVE THE WORLD?

I would like to use the opportunity to have us think about the history of our great country and some of the not so great things our ancestors were involved in. When our ancestors settled here in America they just claimed the land and ignored the existing residents. Are we any better than those we now try to change?

For example, it was not unusual for people in our territories to attack the native American Indians to stir up trouble so the federal government would send assistance. This assistance was always accompanied by the benefit of soldier payrolls which were spent locally and helped the economy. There were even reports of attacks on settlers made to look like Indian raids so that the soldiers would come and protect the populace. Relate this to our criticism of Iraqi citizens.

In 1513 Ponce de Leon landed in North Florida, left a marker and named the land Le Florida relating to the many plants and wild flowers. He claimed for Spain all of the land which went North and West so this area became the headquarters of the future America. In 1565 the Spanish founded the city of St. Augustine and it has continued as the oldest European settlement in the new America. The Spanish were not harsh on the native Americans, the Timucuan Tribes but the diseases that the Europeans brought killed all of them.

Frank Waters was a historian of early Native American history and in the “Book of the Hopi” he describes some of the events of the settling of the country and the massacres of the American Indians. In 1620 the English founded the Plymouth plantation and in section 4 of this book Waters relates the writings of Cotton Mather about the Pequot massacre shortly after the arrival. The woods were cleared to make room for a better growth. (Could not confirm the ref.) It is even claimed Benjamin Franklin wrote about expurgating the savages to make room for the cultivators.

In 1641 New Netherlands began offering bounties for Indian scalps. This was adopted in 1704 by Connecticut, then Massachusetts, Pennsylvania in 1764 offered bounties for Indian bucks, squaws and boys under 10 years of age. In 1814 a fifty dollar reward was offered for scalps by the territory of Indiana. In Colorado the bounty was offered and by 1876 Deadwood, Dakota Territory offered 200 dollars. Then Oregon posted a bounty and women were clubbed to death and babies smashed against trees to save the expense of lead and powder.
You will find additional information on the internet about bounties and I am sorry to have to relate such a gruesome history.

Our ancestors were also involved in slave trading. Africans sold slaves and these poor folks were shipped to various countries including the United States. Native Americans were also enslaved and sold here or shipped to other countries. There was also trade in white slaves captured during wars in Europe.
I can proudly state my Great Grandfather, John Rusby joined the grass roots movement that formed the Republican Party and elected Lincoln to stop slavery. The first slaves were freed using the president’s wartime powers to sign the emancipation proclamation. (If you overturn some of the Bush wartime actions will you affect the freedom of those earlier actions of Lincoln?)

I have a message for all of us. We grew out of these horrible practices and recognized the wrongs and we have learned to treat others with love and compassion.
But as we preach to others, remember that we cannot hold our heads so high that we have the right to condem the rest of the world without being humble. We avoid talking or teaching about the atrocities in our past. You can be positive our enemies have studied our past and might have the right to give some condemnation. That does not excuse them or excuse us from trying to save others.

We know what is right and we know our religious roots have helped to show us the way.
We must help others and we could start by reviewing our treatment of the native American Indians and ask ourselves if we are doing the right things for them today. Are we imposing our standards or imposing our traditions without respecting their traditions?

What do you think?