[thechat] READ AT YOUR OWN RISK: Open Letter to America from a Canadian

[Sean G.]

> >Why does unabashed bigotry appear true?  People as individuals
> and as groups
> >have been abusing the Earth and each other for all of history.
>
> actually, no...
>
> or it depends on what you call history.  Most Indigenous groups (in
> Africa, Australia, and the Americas) have managed to live quite
> sustainably, and relatively peacefully, for tens of thousands of
> years, thank you very much.
>

Um, actually, no.

Several mass-extinction events have been tied to the effects of
people--either directly through hunting or indirectly through the use of
fire, utilization of vegetative resources, etc.  From "Biodiversity and
Conservation: A Hypertext Book by Peter J. Bryant"
<http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~sustain/bio65/lec03/b65lec03.htm>

As people moved around and became those peaceful indigenous groups, we may
have wrecked havoc on animal populations in Europe, Australia, and the
Americas.  (I really don't haven't done the research the argue the finer
points of these claims, but I know those schooled in the relevant arts do
discuss such theories.)  So it's really a question of degree--there's more
of us and our technology allows us to destroy the inhabitants of the Earth
more efficiently, but there really isn't anything new under the sun.

As for how we treat each other, slavery existed in Africa long before any
European knew there was a western hemisphere.  (The pyramids didn't build
themselves, and Egyptians didn't run a union shop in those days.)
Meanwhile, Mayans made great wars on each other.  So perhaps it doesn't
depend on what you call history.


> >Why are our sins worse than others'?
>
> "power corrupts.  absoulte power corrupts absolutely."
>
> Erika

Exactly.  So why is American abuse of power worse than African abuse of
power?  How can Israelis be war criminals and murders when Palestinians are
victims?  What corrupting power was held by the guy on the 90th floor of WTC
tower 2 when the plane hit?  Whether he was a filthy capitalist with a big
office, or the guy cleaning the phones, at that moment, what corrupting
power made it okay to kill that guy?

The 13-year old girl, celebrating her passage into womanhood with her
family--what corrupting power did she have that forgives the Palestinian
gunman who opens fire on the party?  Your average man and woman on the
street, taking the public bus home after work, is that such a concentration
of absolute power that the man who attempts to blow them up with himself is
a hero, a martyr, and not a murderer?

To quote the 'Open Letter': "True, there are abominable Arab suicide bombers
in Israel's midst. But are they not driven to madness and desperation by
your infernal support of international terrorist politics"

Where is this power that has corrupted us to the point where we are no
longer human?  With all the sins and mistakes we've made, when did it reach
the point that it's okay to kill _us_?

The English have a grand history (just ask the Irish), and indigenous folks
in Australia haven't been treated any better by the white man than the
Americans.  Japan has a great tradition of invading the mainland.  (Make the
mistake of calling a Korean Japanese and you'll likely get an earful.)
Africans have a grand legacy from the slavery of biblical times to the
stonings of today.  How is the American any uglier than his brothers and
sisters around the world?

Israel is a tiny postage stamp of a country, a democracy surrounded on three
sides by monarchies and military dictatorships with the sea on the forth.
Oh, the millions in those surrounding countries have sworn to run Israelis
into that sea.  Where is the absolute power that makes it acceptable to kill
those people in cold blood?

I don't see it.


Sean G.