On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 5:18 PM, Udhay Shankar N <[email protected]> wrote: > Heh. Agreed. That said, one could make a fairly convincing argument > that the tea party (rather, the old white rich guy club that it is one > face of) is systematically killing (or at least, attempting to) > whatever made the USA, the USA.
The racial, religious, cultural bigotry has always been a part of the USA. Not a very nice part admittedly, but it's always been there. The KKK and other clan mobs, the interning of Japanese families after Peal harbor, the villainous campaigns against supposed communist sympathizers, the campaign against Cuba 50 years ongoing, Bobby Kennedy's attempt to end the freedom rides, the ill defined war on drugs, the skew in jail populations overwhelmingly towards jails bring about a new kind of slavery: the history of American intolerance towards the world and its own people is long and serious. That said we would like to remember America for its great tolerance and spirit, for the times when it ignores the fearful stereotype of intolerance and embraces diversity and peace. We would like to remember America for the civil rights movements - the freedom rides, the Nashville sit-ins, for the many who protested against Vietnam, for the Occupy protests, for the many times when the people rose as a whole against injustice, vested interests and small minds. Then there is the institutional America of lip service and contradictions, forced busing and public school rich white flight, leaky social security nets and food stamps that all but starve the needy, disenfranchised felon rehabilitation into a minimum wage market, and human rights crusades in the Arab world in the shadow of Guantanamo. Which is the real America? Howard Zinn's A People's History Of The United States is not the most common history book found in American schools for a reason. http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html
