The Trail of Tears and the Greatness of America

I recently finished writing about my visit to the Cherokee Nation on GoNOMAD.com, and it was a story that took a long time to write. That does not necessarily mean that the end result is any better. In fact sometimes it works quite the other way. A story that’s been overworked can be hard to read. 

The problem was, I kept coming back to tragedy and injustice of the Trail of Tears.

Like many Americans, I’m disgraced and disgusted by the so-called journalists and candidates who love to talk about the greatness of America. They’re the same kind of idiots who voted for the Indian Relocation Act of 1930. They wouldn’t know greatness if it bit them in the ass.

The forced relocation of the Cherokee was not a moment of American greatness. You’re not going to see a Disney movie about it any time soon. Virtually all the deaths were due to disease, hypothermia, and starvation. There was no armed resistance.

So it was more a case of stupidity and mismanagement than malicious violence. But a crime is a crime. Our country blundered and committed a terrible crime and thousands of innocent people died, mostly children and the elderly.

 I think any country that aspires to greatness should be able to learn from its blunders. 

I think every candidate for office in the United States should be asked, “What are your views on the Indian Relocation Act of 1830?” If they have no opinion, we’d know to vote for someone else.

And, when you think about it, in a really great country, you probably wouldn’t have to have a bunch of imbeciles ranting about the greatness of the country. There would probably be something more constructive for them to do.