Warning: This post is not racially driven, however, it is about race and the injustices that should be addressed and considered.
As a homeschool mom, I have the unique privilege of teaching my child the history of our country in more than one way. Unlike when I was growing up, I can research a historical event from all
perspectives and teach her every view as oppose to the one-sided white man’s view I was taught as a kid. I can teach her how to always seek the truth from all sides because one side will always be heavy handed in their favor.
This week was Columbus Day. We studied Columbus already, but we were watching a series of history videos on YouTube last week and it made me realize an unsettling fact about our country. This country was built on lies, theft, murder, rape, kidnapping, laziness, and greed.
Before anyone decided to climb in a boat and sail across the sea, there was a land filled with people. Some of them migrated here many years before and others were native to the land. These people were the inhabitants of what we call America today. Columbus did not discover this land. It was here all along and so were the natives who lived here. My ancestors!
Columbus, Cortez, and all the rest came here decided they wanted the land for themselves and stole it, cheated for
it, or murdered to get it. They brought their judgments to this land and passed it on the natives. They used their superiority attitudes to convince themselves that their lifestyle was better than the natives and took over the land and the people. They tried to change the natives as if something was wrong with them and made them less than they were because they were uncivilized savages after all.
Before America was invaded, I mean “discovered”, women were valued, the land was bountiful, the air was clean, and everyone worked equally for the common good. Everything certainly was not perfect, as it never really is anywhere, but everything was just fine. Everyone was living their lives peacefully and happily.
I remember my grandmother telling me stories of how the settlers would buy the land from the natives for $1.00 because the natives had no concept of money and did not realize that was an insulting amount of money to offer for the
land. I remember being appalled at the thought of someone cheating the natives so deliberately. I also remember my outrage when I learned out slavery and the poor treatment of the Africans who were ripped from their homes and brought to this land to serve the lazy, let’s call it what it is, white men and their families.
The truth is this…..the natives were doing fine living their lives the way they chose. It was not the place of the explorers to come here and decided that the “savages”, their word, not mine, needed to be taught to be “civilize” and live the way the explorers people lived in their country. It was not their place to come here and steal the land, the women, or anything else America had to offer. It was not their home. They were guests and should have behaved as such. Instead, they came here and passed judgment and acted off that judgment.
Who were they to come into these people’s home and tell them how to live their lives? What arrogance!
I look at our history and our present and cannot help but notice that nothing really has changed. There is this constant movement to tell people how to live, judge those who do not live up to the standards the explorers placed on this land and prosecute those who are what they consider to be less than because they are “savages”.
People are being killed over the color of their skin still. Women still have no true equality. The poor is looked down upon. Black women are considered awful things if they are assertive, strong, and confident. Policies are made to benefit the greed of the one percent. Others are made to keep the rest lower than the one percent. Our educational system is set up to keep as many illiterate as possible so the one percent can control everything. This country was made on dishonesty and is still being run on dishonesty.
You may not see it on the surface, but if you look deep it is there. It is time to make changes. It is time to rethink how this country was developed and choose to make it stand for something different. It is time to take our home back and do the right thing. We must teach our children the truth about our history and urge them to make a difference while we lay the groundwork for them to take over. If we don’t make a change, this country will go down like the Titanic. Karma gets everyone in the end. The sins of the father are always lurking. A relationship built on lies cannot survive.
How do you teach your children history? Do you believe nothing has changed? Do you believe it is time to get rid of these holidays celebrating men who murdered others to steal the land and begin to create holidays that honor the natives and anyone else worthy of a holiday because they did something good for this country? What do you think? Let’s chat about it!
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