Re: Jul 4
Namaste.
Columbus Day is the day to mourn for the plight of Native Americans. Columbus Day commemorates the beginning of the end of Native American culture, begun by the Spanish and the Portuguese. Unfortunately the effects of Columbus's landing in the New World were already > 300 years in the making by the time of the American Revolution.
The American Revolution was not initially about conquest, greed and empire building. It was about freedom. Unfortunately the expansion and growth of what were initially the American colonies continued and accelerated the destruction of Native American cultures.
For that, we should all mourn, as we should mourn for the steamrolling of Tibet by the Chinese, the steamrolling of Russia and Eastern Europe by the Soviets, the steamrolling of India by Greeks, Arabs, Portuguese and British; the steamrolling of Manchuria and the atrocities committed by the Japanese; the list of steamrolled and raped cultures is virtually endless.
Independence Day commemorates the overthrow of the tyranny of the British Empire over its colonies, regardless of the continent: Asia, Africa, the Americas. Without the American Revolution and the elimination of British rule in the Americas, I believe that the US would not have the freedoms it does. This is because of the way the colonies were being treated by the British: as 2nd class citizens and serfs. Canada, Australia and New Zealand did not experience the same treatment mostly because they were so sparsely populated, and in the case of Oz and NZ, very remote.
While I am certainly not happy for or proud of the destruction of Native American cultures and civilizations all through North and South America, and many of the other things the US has gotten its hands dirty over, I personally am happy that the US is its own nation. Any day that commemorates the overthrow of the tyranny of a foreign power preventing a people to govern themselves is a good day. Any day that creates a nation that prevents the world from speaking German and/or Japanese as its primary languages is a day of celebration.
Last edited by Jainarayan; 04 July 2012 at 12:56 PM.
Reason: Grammatical clarity.
śivasya hridayam viṣṇur viṣṇoscha hridayam śivaḥ
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