A Life Built on the Bent Backs of Others

Our lives are the result of countless people who suffered and died in hopes of a better tomorrow, and we don't even learn about them. It's disgusting that you open an average high school textbook and our nations past Presidents and corporate elite are depicted as heros who birthed a minimum wage and safe working conditions. These text books fail to mention the uphill battle that hundreds of thousands of people fought in order to work less than 12 hour or more days and make more than $3 a week. The United State's presidents of the 1800's were no heros. They were elected by the wealthy to make the rich like Rockefeller and Carnegie richer and keep the poor in their place.

I'm reading A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. The amount of our history that is left out of curriculum, not only in high school but college as well, is staggering. Our history is polished and cleaned, sanitized. We are taught to be proud of this grand nation filled with pioneers and courageous pilgrims who founded a land of equality and freedom. But this is not the reality of our beginning.

Europeans knocked out 90% of the native population with disease alone. I am sure the Europeans can not be completely blamed for this. Could they have known how devastating small pox would be for a community who had evolved to resist parasites not virus'? But Europeans did know these diseases were contagious and occasionally used a form of biological warfare by throwing diseased bodies into the villages of the natives (this was also practiced in Europe).

Later on, the US Government would sign documents promising Native Americans land West of the Mississippi. Over and over they broke these contracts and kept pushing them further and further as the US expanded. Cherokees made an attempt to adapt to the European way of life. They were still kicked out.

There's really way too much to go into in a blog post. I want you to know that I am not anti-American. I don't believe current citizens of the United States can be held accountable for what our ancestors did. But, we do need to accept what happened. We need to know and then we need to move forward keeping our tarnished history in mind. What our country professes to be be is a beautiful thing. But what we say we are and what we are seem to be separate. Let us strive to be a country where equality exists to the extent that it can.

We have come a long way since our founding, but it's a delicate balance. I feel we could so easily fall backwards. A fear at the fore front of my mind is the disappearance of unions. An alarming amount of people fail to understand their importance. They think they ask for too much. They think that the government can and will protect the workers. However, I find it hard to believe the government is going to protect the individual when corporations via lobbyists are pouring millions of dollars into the pockets of senators and congressmen. We need entities that can stand up to those forces. The government can't make certain coal mines and oil rigs are safe (most likely due to hefty donations from both industry's). Could they take on the added responsibility of insuring individuals rights and safety?

In a perfect world, Ayn Rand characters would actually exist. Business men would be honest and as long as people performed their duties they would be okay. But that's not this world. A libertarian world won't work any more than a communist world will. Extremes fail.

And there you have it. My angry rant for the week.