This is not who we are
In an address to the nation in August of 2013 on the subject of waterboarding detainees at Guantanamo, President Obama said "We tortured some folks but torturing people is not who we are". Thus he simultaneously admitted that the US has done some sordid deeds in its past while pointing out that in general we, as a nation, have, or like to think we have, high humanitarian principles.
In addition to torturing prisoners, we must in all humility confess that we killed people for witchcraft in Salem, Mass in the 17th century and we "legally" enslaved African peoples in the 18th century. In the 19th century we fought a bloody civil war to decide whether our country could survive half free and half slave. The Democratic Party of the time was pro-choice on slavery. If one didn't believe in slavery one could decline to own one and, if one believed that slavery was ethically acceptable, one had merely to move to a state where this was legal. The Republican Party under Lincoln resorted to various political tricks to get the 13th constitutional amendment approved freeing all the slaves in the United States. However, in the same 19th century we engaged in ethnic cleansing by forcibly removing native Americans from large areas of the country and, in the 20th century, we commited atrocities in Germany and Vietnam.
Nevertheless, as alluded to by the president, America aspires to be a country where "inalienable" rights including the right to life are guaranteed to all.
We should not delude ourselves, however, into thinking that other countries aspire to lesser ideals even while they, also, have committed egregious crimes in their history.
A good example is Germany where a high level of civilization was constructed displaying unsurpassed achievements in music and science. In the 20th century, however, the people of Germany elected Adolf Hitler as Chancellor and allowed him to set up a legislative and judicial system that legalized the condemning of dissenters and the persecution of jews, gypsies, and homosexuals. These were defined to be Untermenschen, i.e. less than human. It is said that 30% of European jews in the mid 20th century, six million in six years, were killed by the Nazis with no large scale protests. When heroism should have been considered obligatory, most Germans closed their shutters in fear while jews were assembled on the city squares for deportation to death camps.
In contemporary America, the greatest assault on humanitarian ideals is the killing since 1973 of 50 million unwanted pre-born children, one million per year so far in this 21st century. These are defined by current law to be less than human and therefore disposable. Once again the Democratic Party has taken a "pro-choice" stance refusing to support any restrictions on a woman's killing of their pre-born offspring. It is said that 30% of women under 50 have aborted or will abort one or more babies. In the current interpretation of the constitution by the Supreme Court, this is perfectly legal but most of the population agrees that this present "law of the land" is not who we are. As in the 19th century, a new abolitionist movement is arising to fight for the character of the country.
In addition to torturing prisoners, we must in all humility confess that we killed people for witchcraft in Salem, Mass in the 17th century and we "legally" enslaved African peoples in the 18th century. In the 19th century we fought a bloody civil war to decide whether our country could survive half free and half slave. The Democratic Party of the time was pro-choice on slavery. If one didn't believe in slavery one could decline to own one and, if one believed that slavery was ethically acceptable, one had merely to move to a state where this was legal. The Republican Party under Lincoln resorted to various political tricks to get the 13th constitutional amendment approved freeing all the slaves in the United States. However, in the same 19th century we engaged in ethnic cleansing by forcibly removing native Americans from large areas of the country and, in the 20th century, we commited atrocities in Germany and Vietnam.
Nevertheless, as alluded to by the president, America aspires to be a country where "inalienable" rights including the right to life are guaranteed to all.
We should not delude ourselves, however, into thinking that other countries aspire to lesser ideals even while they, also, have committed egregious crimes in their history.
A good example is Germany where a high level of civilization was constructed displaying unsurpassed achievements in music and science. In the 20th century, however, the people of Germany elected Adolf Hitler as Chancellor and allowed him to set up a legislative and judicial system that legalized the condemning of dissenters and the persecution of jews, gypsies, and homosexuals. These were defined to be Untermenschen, i.e. less than human. It is said that 30% of European jews in the mid 20th century, six million in six years, were killed by the Nazis with no large scale protests. When heroism should have been considered obligatory, most Germans closed their shutters in fear while jews were assembled on the city squares for deportation to death camps.
In contemporary America, the greatest assault on humanitarian ideals is the killing since 1973 of 50 million unwanted pre-born children, one million per year so far in this 21st century. These are defined by current law to be less than human and therefore disposable. Once again the Democratic Party has taken a "pro-choice" stance refusing to support any restrictions on a woman's killing of their pre-born offspring. It is said that 30% of women under 50 have aborted or will abort one or more babies. In the current interpretation of the constitution by the Supreme Court, this is perfectly legal but most of the population agrees that this present "law of the land" is not who we are. As in the 19th century, a new abolitionist movement is arising to fight for the character of the country.
