You say that like Americans have never been guilty of war crimes?
My Lai? Abu Gharib? America is not without sin, or atrocities...but some here would rather pretend like America is never wrong....like slavery is a figment of someone's imagination, not unlike Iran claiming the Holocaust never happened.
Strikingly similar behavior...yet, we hate Iran, don't we.....we might as well, hate ourselves.

I say that like it is a war. And the more vicious and demeaning the quicker it is over. I say it like one who is incensed that the topic of American atrocities is bandied about like we never endured any at the hands of others.

I have never claimed the holocaust never happened. In fact there is an Ann Frank interpretive display in the park in Boise near where I live, that is just amazing for its simplicity and power to bring home the nightmare of those days. My children grew up reading "Sooner" and "Diary of Ann Frank" and "Tom Sawyer".
I've read about the politics involved in our Spanish American war and the "expansion" to the west.
But if you don't think America has good attributes too, you don't know her like I know her.
Take my hand and lets get into a time machine and go back to 1955. See where you are allowed to rent a motel or eat publicly. And I'll try to get a job as a manager or construction worker.
We have come a long way, Baby. We are going to come a lot farther.
But I'm not going to sit in a puddle of pee and wail "Oh, woe is me!" I never got to do some things because I was a woman, and America let me down. You think it's gravy to be white and male in this country? Money is what talks and always has. Money and the power it can bring. Like they used to say in the sixties-Life is like a crap sandwich; the more bread you got the less s__t you gotta eat! And that's the truth. You make your destiny even if you have a disability. The sky is the limit.
I love this country. Not for what it has given me. Because no body has ever given me a damned thing I didn't work for and deserve. But because America allows me to be a bum or rich or an artist or singer. I can get married or live single. I can be queer -as in quirky- or queer as in sexually. I can wear make up or let my hair grow or shave it! Nobody tells me what to wear or what holidays to commemorate and how.
You think this country is strikingly similar to Iran?! Try living over there with your partner and see if it's strikingly similar.
Meanwhile, get the chip off your shoulder and be a little more positive. You'll find people are a lot nicer than you think if you don't always project an attitude on them that is from somewhere else and doesn't apply to the situation.

__________________

America is strikingly similar to Iran, in that, the leadership could not be more "misguided"....do you really think that the Iranian people are much different from the American people? No, absolutely not....people, when you get right down to it, are just "that".....people....with the same aspirations, same needs and wants, as everyone else. No. It's governments that are at fault, and that will be our ruin.
Think about the last 8 years....are you any better off? Is anyone better off, than they were? Hardly. Just open your eyes and look around...you don't even have to open your eyes...just feel the heat, and smell the air.
What? The truth bothers you?
I don't have a chip on my shoulder. How dare you assume that I do. Projecting attitudes....ever since I've been on this site, only one or no more than three people have ever commented in a civilized manner to me...and you think I have the problem?
I've been insulted, and when I have responded, in kind, I wound up "banned for 7 days"...while the perpetrator still lashes out, at will, and nothing is done or said.
No wonder we're in the sad shape that we're in, precisely because there are people who view life completely from a vacuum, and rely solely on what they have been told about others, instead of investigating for themselves....they call it "brainwashing". 1984 is right here and right now. Big Brother is watching, and you don't give a care. If you like it, I love it....for you...but not for me.
I get on these forums, and I vent...and afterwards I feel better...it allows me to enjoy the quietude, which I need to recharge my batteries, after they've been drained by people, out there, in the world, who feel it's their bounden duty to rain on peoples' parades, and to snatch their joy. I'm over it...I put on my music, mostly jazz, and I forget that there are stupid, uncaring people in the world. I cook, write poetry, work on my music and laugh as often as possible. I'm fine.....you might want to get a reality check yourself.

So, are you saying that "two wrongs make a right"? We suffered atrocities and therefore are bounden to commit them ourselves? What do you suppose would be Christ' answer to that? Do unto others....? Don't be ridiculous.




Did I say that "you" claimed it never happened? No...I referred to Iran, and indirectly, Ahmadinejad.
But more to the point, what would be the lesson of "Anne Frank"?
That, perhaps, it's noble never to give up hope, and to dream (of freedom, and the future)...when the reality of the situation, is her life was snuffed out, too soon. "They" took away her joy. Once again, man's inhumanity to man....a lesson we just can't seem to get right. Why is that?

how dare you assume you are the only one who is caring and everyone else is in support of bigotry.
That is the height of bigotry.

__________________

Madame, I don't assume. If that is what you got from my post, then I can't help you....you are reading things which were not written...."assuming".

aaronssongs, just because someone is black does not automatically make them somehow a better person.

Have you ever heard of the Nation of Islam? Is this an organization who's values you support?

__________________
~
~
~

Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

God is a conservative -

Ecclesiastes 10:2--"A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left."

[quote=faithful_servant;33141]aaronssongs, just because someone is black does not automatically make them somehow a better person.

Have you ever heard of the Nation of Islam? Is this an organization who's values you support?

Pardon me, but where did you read that I think that?
I have repeatedly said, that nothing and no one is "black and white"...human beings are more complex and convoluted than meets the eye. There is "good" and "bad" in "all".
And to counter.....just because someone is "black" doesn't automatically infer that they are less intelligent than you, less knowledgeable, less traveled, or less "anything".
And what a retarded retort. Though I'm not a follower or supporter of the Nation of Islam, do you really think that followers of the Nation of Islam are less American than you? That because of their religious beliefs, don't embrace American ideals? Or that somehow they are "bad people"????? I can't wait for your explanation.
No prejudice or bias on your part, is there?

Sins and atrocities?? One shouldn't point their fingers at America and blame it for slavery because it was going on for a long time before we ever signed our Declaration of Independence. A bit of knowledge goes a long way. Look for the origins of the slave trade in history.

__________________
_____

Barack Obama and his Associations - A Question of Judgement & Character

Oh you won't get him to admit that most of the slave trade was perpetuated by African warlords who sold captives to Dutch traders. You also won't get him to recognize that many slaves were also white debtors and slavery was their sentence. And he'll go rabid when you point out that America was more than humane with their slaves or that even before the declaration was signed, slavery was already a hot political topic and that America, even before it's birth as a nation was already moving toward discussion about the end of a centuries old practice.

Don't let facts get in the way of a good victim fit.