History conveniently shelved. I can see why. It’s easy to sweep the ugly stuff under the rug or avoid it altogether– if people want us to grow up with a certain notion of America in our heads. No need to teach the nuts and bolts and gritty details of Manifest Destiny—that somehow entitled, God-ordained, and ruthless expansion westward.
Promises made, broken, or never kept. The poor treatment, the utter disregard for indigenous traditions and practices. The extermination of men, women and children. Survivors and subsequent generations relegated to reservations, treated little better than impediments and obstacles and less than human.
That understanding of America, that fuller picture of how we came to be, isn’t liable to elicit the same feelings of pride and patriotism. Many eventually find out, though, and then a fair share of our history becomes less than heroic.
America the beautiful, with a giant asterisk and lots of small print.
3 Cents' 