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pan6467 · 04-02-2005, 11:09 AM

No civilization is without evil and dastardly deeds. The Indians were not ALL peaceful, loving, kind peoples, some tribes were very, very cold and calculating and destroyed weaker tribes. It is how we survived. Whether you believe in evolution or not, the fact remains the strong survive and the weaker die off. IT IS NATURE AND IT IS HOW MAN HAS PROGRESSED AS FAR AS HE HAS.

Mankind whether we like it or not is a very agressive animal that lashes out and fights to conquer what is unknown or what will further their existence. It is our past and when we venture to the stars it may very well be our future.

To sit here 500+ years after Columbus and pass judgement on what he did is self-righteous ignorance. To say you would have treated the Indians better and that you are above the greed of the past is lieing either to yourself or to others. Who knows how we would have reacted in Columbus's shoes or what we would have done, to presuppose anything is the crime.

All we can do is learn from the past and move forward and hope we do not repeat the past. But we cannot make promises that we won't repeat past mistakes, after all we are only human and we are agressive, selfish and territorial by nature.

All we achieve, by bringing up the past and using it in ways to show how evil someone 500 years ago was, is division, resentments and allowing some to feel self righteous over others. It is bullshit and to say "we are doing it so we can learnfrom mistakes" is equally bullshit because to learn from mistakes we must learn why those mistakes were made, what situations were going on, in other words we must wear Columbus's shoes, the Indians shoes and the shoes of those who lost and profited most. And we must do this without any bias' and prejudgements. Then and only then can we see the whole picture and learn from it.

04-02-2005, 11:09 AM	#19 (permalink)
pan6467 Lennonite Priest Location: Mansfield, Ohio USA	No civilization is without evil and dastardly deeds. The Indians were not ALL peaceful, loving, kind peoples, some tribes were very, very cold and calculating and destroyed weaker tribes. It is how we survived. Whether you believe in evolution or not, the fact remains the strong survive and the weaker die off. IT IS NATURE AND IT IS HOW MAN HAS PROGRESSED AS FAR AS HE HAS. Mankind whether we like it or not is a very agressive animal that lashes out and fights to conquer what is unknown or what will further their existence. It is our past and when we venture to the stars it may very well be our future. To sit here 500+ years after Columbus and pass judgement on what he did is self-righteous ignorance. To say you would have treated the Indians better and that you are above the greed of the past is lieing either to yourself or to others. Who knows how we would have reacted in Columbus's shoes or what we would have done, to presuppose anything is the crime. All we can do is learn from the past and move forward and hope we do not repeat the past. But we cannot make promises that we won't repeat past mistakes, after all we are only human and we are agressive, selfish and territorial by nature. All we achieve, by bringing up the past and using it in ways to show how evil someone 500 years ago was, is division, resentments and allowing some to feel self righteous over others. It is bullshit and to say "we are doing it so we can learnfrom mistakes" is equally bullshit because to learn from mistakes we must learn why those mistakes were made, what situations were going on, in other words we must wear Columbus's shoes, the Indians shoes and the shoes of those who lost and profited most. And we must do this without any bias' and prejudgements. Then and only then can we see the whole picture and learn from it. __________________ I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"