[Peace-discuss] Obama on Our Violent Culture

[Ricky Baldwin]

Thank you, John.

I think even a lot of 'progressives' don't know much
about Wounded Knee, even less the incredible
confrontation there almost a hundred years later (I
like Mary Crow Dog's account in Lakota Woman).

These are things many of assume our government would
never do - or has stopped doing.  Personally, I guess
I'll never forget the shock, horror, shame - and
naivete - I felt during the first Gulf War when I
heard about our troops burying people alive in the
sands, shooting unarmed Iraqis trying to surrender,
the "Turkey Shoot", etc.  And I for one already knew
US troops (incl. police) had done things like this in
the past, as recently as Vietnam and Kent State.  I
guess I just thought - and didn't even realize that I
had thought - that they didn't do it any more.

One note, though.  I told a very good friend named
John Conlon about my reaction, my realization that I
assumed this naive thing, and my shock at realizing
simultaneously that I held this belief and how stupid
it was.  His response was this:

"I think we are all incredibly naive, compared to the
people who run this country."

I have come to see his remark as a valuable gift to
me.  I pass it along now to anyone who can use it.
Ricky

[...]

> Yet another illustration of how myopic our white
> American view of history 
> is, and how utterly unconscious of it we are.  This
> phrase, "the biggest 
> mass shooting in American history", has already
> become an integral and 
> thoroughly accepted part of the mainstream public
> discourse.  A friend of 
> mine - a person of color, naturally - has suggested
> at least one instance 
> that was roughly ten times worse.  See if you can
> guess what event he was 
> thinking of.  From Wikipedia:
> 
> 
> On
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_29>December
> 29, 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1890>1890, five
> hundred troops of the 
>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._7th_Cavalry_Regiment>U.S.
> 7th Cavalry, 
> supported by four
>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotchkiss_gun>Hotchkiss
> 
> guns (a lightweight
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artillery>artillery
> piece 
> capable of rapid fire), surrounded an encampment of
> Miniconjou Sioux 
> (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakota_people>Lakota)
> and Hunkpapa Sioux 
> (Lakota)  with orders to escort them to the railroad
> for transport to 
>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omaha%2C_Nebraska>Omaha,
> Nebraska. The 
> commander of the 7th had been ordered to disarm the
> Lakota before 
> proceeding and placed his men in too close proximity
> to the Lakota, 
> alarming them. Shooting broke out near the end of
> the disarmament, and 
> accounts differ regarding who fired first and why.
> 
> By the time it was over, 25 troopers and 300 Lakota
> Sioux lay dead, 
> including men, women, and children.  Many of the
> dead soldiers are believed 
> to have been the victims of 
>
"<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_fire>friendly
> fire" as the shooting 
> took place at point blank range in chaotic
> conditions, and most of the 
> Lakota had previously been unarmed.  Around 150
> Lakota are believed to have 
> fled the chaos, of which many likely died from 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothermia>exposure.
> 
> [...]

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