Welcome to CPNP. I was going to make this week’s article about the US President. He has said and acted in a manner that further embarrasses the nation among our fellow nations and further widens the gap between his administration and the majority of the US populace. So that will be the main content of the next article,

This week, I have decided to take a stroll down the nation’s memory lane. With all the hype over two hundred and fifty years, which is actually an error, I thought it would be good to go through the nation’s past. I will give a trigger warning, especially for those that hold the current right sided ideology. But, I am a center of the road person. I’m neither left or right. I understand that there is good and bad on both sides of the political aisle. So within this article, both may get angry, a little squirmy in their eats. And I will be doing this article without detailing a particular side. Just some historical facts.

Let’s start with our founding. The date we celebrate is actually wrong. True, the Declaration of Independence was written on June 11th and 28th of 1776 and ratified on July 4th of 1776. But it had not started to be signed until August 2nd of 1776 when John Hancock was the first to sign. The final signature did not occur until  January 1777. Here is what will upset people. That 1776 document was nothing more than our written declaration of desire to be an independent nation. The war ended on September 3rd in 1783 at the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

So, to accurately celebrate the independence of the United States, the date should be the date of the treaty. Here’s why. Without French aiding the colonies and the combination of France, Spain, and the Netherlands causing a two front conflict with Britain, the colonies would have lost. That means, the great heroes and leaders of the insurrection of the colonies toward the crown, would have been tried and hung for treason. It was the day in Paris that is the true day of independence. So the nation is only two hundred and forty three years old, this coming August.

Now that you are probably starting to feel that patriotic blood boil, lets get you really upset.

First, let’s start with the fact of the founding of the nation not being as open as the declaration states. We all know the second paragraph. “We hold these truth’s to be self-evident, that All men are created equal, that endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

We will start here. All men. Interesting since an estimated 500,000 Africans were in the colonies (with an estimated 10% being free). There were also an estimated 24,000-51,000 indigenous slaves in the colonies. And while not being chattel slaves (permanent lifelong enslavement), there were an estimated 350,000 European white indentured slaves (those who had the ability to buy or earn their freedom) including about 55,000 prisoners (criminals) from Britain. So, not ALL men were equal.

In 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln started the ending of slavery. That wouldn’t officially come until the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. But it came with a caveat. Prisoners could still be used as slave for labor. But freedom didn’t mean equal. That came in steps, thanks to Jim Crow laws. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 gave them full citizenship and equal rights (on paper not in practice). In 1864, the 14th Amendment was ratified, making every person born on US soil, US citizens. The 15th Amendment, in 1870, gave Black Men the right to vote. However, the ruling powers decided that, to vote, a person had to pass testing. Guess who seldom passed.

In 1924, the Snyder Act gave Indigenous peoples citizenship and the right to vote. On paper. But like the black community, testing and others issues barred them from that right.

In 1954, the case of Brown vs the Board of Education, determined that there would be no more segregated schools. However, that was the second court case for non-whites being allowed to enter any school of their choosing. The first was Mendez vs Westminister School District of Orange County California (1947). It determined that those of Mexican descent could not be disallowed entry into the white public school systems. From the earliest days in the 1700s through the mid 1900s, Indigenous students were barred from White schools, but forced to live and study at white ran boarding schools.

In 1964, the Civil Rights Act allowed the inclusion of the black community in all facets of life. On paper. Then came the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that disallowed any barring of black citizens from voting. And in 1968, the Fair Housing Act put an end to housing discrimination. On paper.

Now we see, under this administration, and the latest ruling by the US Supreme Court, start tearing apart those hard earned rights of the minority communities that they were created to protect. But in reality, those Congressional Acts were good on paper but not in life. Even prior to the current administration, prejudice and bigoted ideology still created the problems that the Acts were suppose to remedy.

These issues were then had attempted to level the playing field with things like DEI initiatives and Affirmative Action. This administration has eliminated these initiatives, And the like minded bigotry consuming part of the populace cheers. I suppose they forget that, these initiatives only opened the door. Students still had to achieve academically. Women still had to learn the trade or business they were to work in. Minorities still had to work hard, prove their ability, and earn the spots in their respective professions.

President Trump said he wanted to take us back to the gilded age. And that statement alone proves his ideology and the mental inability to govern with respect to the populace he now governs. The gilded age was both great and horrible. The 1920s gaped the rich and the poor further than it had been up to that point. Then in 1929, the rich became the poor in many cases. Jim Crow was the standard minority political prison. So, he did keep that promise.

Now, a few small notes of miscarriages of justice and mercy (and pure evil) of this nation’s history. Since we already looked at slavery and the political fights. We will look at other areas and actions. While not listing all (as it would take volumes, and others do a better job of writing about the finer points of the nation’s evils), I will hit on some. I will trust the reader to have the academic fortitude to look up details of the things to be mentioned.

From 1787 to 1871, the US government ratified and signed 374 treaties with the Indigenous peoples of the land. All to the deterioration of those same indigenous. And guess how many were either broken or ignored. Any guesses? All of them. They took the different nations, placed them on tiny plots, gave them rancid provisions, disease infested materials, committed genocide (Wounded Knee, Trail of Tears, California Genocide) and tried eliminating their respective culture (banning rituals, banning language, and kidnapping the children and forcing them into boarding schools). To this day, not all nations have recognized tribal status.

A small look at the Mexican population. Erasure from record books throughout history. The previously mentioned issues listed that affected every minority group. Operations like Wetback in under the Eisenhower administration and the current national sweeps by ICE and Border Patrol. Both parties have been involved with this. It was started by President Trump. This current set of events is because of the progression of events. A period of gassing Mexicans in El Paso started around 1917. They were forced to bath in gasoline. Then in the 20s and 30s, Zyklon B was used to ‘fumigate’ them. This product was cyanide based. It went on to have a huge historical significance. It was used by the Nazi regime to kill millions in the death camps. (Wonder where they got the idea from). The from the 1940s through the 1960s, the government used DDT. They also used various other chemical compounds.

This brings us to a few other areas of ‘medical’ interest. The original abortion program was placed around interurban  (minority prominent areas). Planned Parenthood founder, Margaret Sanger said it was for these reasons. “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population” (1939). “Advocate the stoppage of procreation of those deemed diseased and feeble-minded” (1921). “certain populations spawning a class of human beings who never should have been born” (1921). Proposal of sterilization of Dysgenic (the deterioration of hereditary qualities of a population) groups. (1932). Can you guess what it was never meant for? Women’s Heath. It was, and is, nothing more than population elimination control system.

The black community, like other minority communities, had more than its share of the elimination of the Hippocratic Oath in medicine.

The 1840s brought the gynecological experiments of Dr. J Marion Sims. He did procedures without anesthetics because ‘black people felt no pain’. Forced sterilizations of the 20th Century. The longest running STD test of the 20th Century. Called the Tuskegee Study (1932-1972), this tested the untreated effects of Syphilis on black men. A cure came in 1947 but was not used. In 1951, John Hopkins took cancer cells from Henrietta Lacks, without consent, to develop what is known as the HeLa cell line. Cellular treatment came from this. And in the 1950s, radiation was used on members of the black community. Just to see what the effects would be.

And while we are talking about the evils toward the black community, let us not forget names like Black Wall Street, Strange Fruit, Rosewood, Colfax, Wilmington, East St Louis, Memphis and all the pre and post Jim Crow lynchings. That 2nd point is important to me. My great grandfather was at the last official lynching recorded in Indiana. He is front (and almost center0 in the memory postcard of that lynching of two black men in Marion. Poet Abel Meeropol (Lewis Allen) wrote about the scene in the postcard. The Song was later done by Billie Holiday.

A country that, at one time, placed itself as the last beacon of light in a dark world, has its own shadows. And while things had started to be on a better track, we have gone backwards. Elimination of needed programs, elimination of aid, soldiers on the streets, the government law enforcement agencies defying the laws that guard against abuse in duty, dehumanization, and other evils that cause the deterioration of civilization.

As I said toward the beginning, this current administration is the result of issues that have been within the US psyche since in foundation as a nation. All great civilization throughout the eons of time have fallen because of the issues within, more than the issues without. Political ideologies have switched places over the years. Democrats formed the original Klan and less than a hundred years later, brought in civil rights.Republicans that gave freedom and equality to the black community, now end equality initiatives and treat those they deem unworthy as trash to disposed of. The conservative today forces their version of Christianity (which it isn’t) while the liberal advocates a vast majority of things that are unethical and immoral.

While this nation was found on the biblical foundation of the Creator and the last six commandments were the basis for our laws, the founding fathers (despite their evils) saw fit to make sure that the government DID NOT force one faith over another by demand adherence to one.

The Right demands judgment without mercy while the Left demands mercy without judgment. Both are wrong. There has to be Justice and Judgment but it must be done with Mercy. Christ wast one or the other, conservative or liberal. He was both. Conservative on the Laws of God (Matthew 5:18) and Liberal on how to treat our fellow man, friend and enemy (the entirety of the Gospels).

Ill leave you with this to ponder. First we are not a Democracy. We are a Constitutional Republic. Our voice can be heard in protest, but our say is truly in the ballot box. Second, The Constitution is not a set of God given rights. If they were, they could not be taken. They are only privileges that can be amended and removed. So elect those that will protect them.And last, whether you agree or disagree with another. Do it civilly. Do it ethically and morally. Remember. Every person born, whether or not you agree with their politics, ideologies, religions, gender issues, etc….they are worthy of dignity, just by the fact they were born. Not whether they were born here or elsewhere…..BUT because they were born.