"J. van Baardwijk" wrote:
>
> At 08:55 24-4-02 -0400, Gautam Mukunda wrote:
>
> >None of them made any effort to save their Jews. The people of Western
> >Europe could have fought to protect their Jews - and themselves too, of
> >course. Even under occupation they could have tried. But they didn't.
>
> He who is without sin...
>
> How hard did the American population try to help the Native Americans when
> their fellow Americans tried their best to massacre the Native Americans?
> How many of them hid NA's in their homes and fought against their countrymen?
There were people who took the side of the Native Americans. Hiding
them in their homes in many cases wasn't at all practical, but there
were those who stood up for them -- among those, members of Congress
when the government was going to do them further injustice.
If you want a fictionalized account of a young girl's bravery in this
respect, there's a chapter of _Caddie Woodlawn_ by Carol Ryrie Brink you
should read. The book is based on stories from her grandmother's
childhood. The attitudes of the people, both Caddie's family and their
neighbors, are real, and that's the key thing here, I think.
> How hard did the American population try to help the blacks when they were
> enslaved? How many of them hid blacks in their homes and fought against
> their countrymen?
Um, the Quakers and others who ran the Underground Railroad to get
slaves safely out of slavery. Read a biography of Harriet Tubman, and
note all the white people that were helping her and all the slaves she
helped. There are some good books on the Underground Railroad, I'm
sure, but I can't recommend one offhand.
Oh, and the Quakers didn't *fight*, really, as that was against their
religion.
How about all the abolitionists that stirred up public feeling against
slavery? A number of them were persecuted and harmed for their efforts,
especially early on.
The Civil War has been mentioned. While I don't think that, in their
minds, the rank-and-file in the Confederate army were fighting for the
right for the rich to own slaves, the war was about slavery more than
anything else. How about all those Union troops that went into battle
and were bloodied and killed, especially before Gettysburg?
> How hard did the American population try to help their Japanese citizens
> when the US government locked them up in camps? How many of them hid
> Japanese in their homes and raided those camps to free their Japanese
> fellow citizens?
This I cannot comment on, nor can I defend the actions of the
government, except to say that at least the American Japanese were not
rounded up for the purposes of killing them or enslaving them to work,
but merely to keep them confined to where they couldn't help the enemy.
> How hard did the American population try to help their blacks when racism
> reared its ugly head? How many of them protected the blacks and fought
> against the racists?
A number of them, and a number of white people were threatened or killed
as a result of their efforts. Now, the problem has not been entirely
solved yet, but I think there are fewer and fewer racists in each
generation. (I'm certainly hoping this is the case, or I may find
myself 50 years from now actually having given up my personal
squeamishness regarding firearms and using a gun to defend black people
in my own house. Even now, if I had to, I would kill if someone broke
into my house with the intent of killing a black guest because of skin
color. This is something I started thinking about a few years ago. I
don't think it's every going to come to that, but I've made up my mind
as to what I'll do if it does.)
> How hard did the American population try to join the fight against
> terrorism after planes crashed into the WTC and the Pentagon last year?
What am I *supposed* to do in the fight against terrorism? Tell me
that. Am I supposed to just continue to live my life? report suspicious
behavior (which I haven't seen any of, maybe because I don't get out
much)? spend money to help the economy? try to raise my son to not hate
anyone? What *should* I be doing, Jeroen?
Julia
