The American Way

A lot is said about the good intentions of our founding fathers. I believe their intentions to have been a bit selfish..

Male. White. Landholder.

While a majority of the people who were sent here by England were considered criminals and religious heretics, some came here by choice. To the landholders went the criminals. Some people who came here by choice sold themselves into slavery. They were called indentured servants. Supposedly their contracts of voluntary slavery only lasted a few years and then they were free to do as they wished. The white males were allowed to become landholders if they were wily enough.

Thanks to some powerful and venal early Americans, the Yoke of King George of England was thrown off with a flurry of shooting, hiding in holes, shooting, hiding behind trees, knifing in the back, and hiding. A whole bunch of hiding and knifing and shooting. Then we won. YeeHaw in Texas talk. But problems began in the form of other governments deciding they wanted what we had and an indigenous population of nasty savages that did not think it should have to move away to make room for hemp farms.

Needing reliable workers who would not protest with a contract of term limits, the landholders decided to import labor from Africa. This labor force was bought as cattle and treated as such. Good landholders learned to feed and clothe their cattle and dose them with medications as needed. Many landholders were not of this category.

Some of the more intelligent landholders realized breeding their cattle personally to be of greater satisfaction than letting the cattle breed on its own. Rules had to be made. Suddenly very light-skinned cattle started to appear. Some light-skinned cattle were wily enough to pretend to be a People. The landholders were up to the task and were happy to dish out punishment..

Ah, but what of the nasty savages? They did not make good slaves. They already had the ill grace to think of themselves as People and objected to being treated badly. Obviously extermination was the only solution. Bounties were offered for scalps and savages were killed on sight.

Several years went by. America became crowded. Industrialization began. A battle began between the industrialists and the landholders. Slavery was too expensive for a factory owner. The cities were overflowing with poor and desperate people. The industrialists believed the landholders to have an unfair economic advantage. A magnificent war broke out; lots of people slaughtered lots of other people and what started out as a good time ended up a disgusting mess that is still not resolved today. The unwilling African immigrants were no longer slaves, but they were certainly not People.

Meanwhile, this wonderful military force developed by both the industrialists and landholders needed something to do. There were those pesky savages who had the uppityness to believe they had a right to exist. America did its best to exterminate the pests, but could not do so economically, as the savages did their best to survive. Agreements were made and populations of Native American Indians were placed in Reservations and told to stay there. Rotten food and blankets and clothing saturated with contagious diseases were given to these destitute and demoralized beings. When the Reservation was found to have valuable minerals on it, those particular Native Americans were rounded up and herded to a more desolate and useless landscape. When this did not break the spirit of these people, America stole the children and placed them in institutions where they were stripped of their heritage. Today the Term Native American is associated with gambling casinos. As they get rich enough, they too become People.

The American Way is Commerce. It is good business to spend a penny and get a hundred dollars. How else would the one percent of our population who have this penny to spend maintain their current lifestyle.

Max Stockinger