Whose Hallowed Ground Is It….?

For an interesting perspective on whose hallowed ground…whose burial ground it was long….long….before 9-11 check out the article in Mother Jones. And for a much more caustic look at the issue check out the article in loon watch about the article in Mother Jones.  It claims that many slaves….some Muslim…were buried there long before the Towers ever stood on that patch of real estate. 


And for another interesting perspective about monuments built at sacred sites, check out this article on Mount Rushmore. Excerpt….

For the uninitiated, Wounded Knee is where, in 1890, Union soldiers killed more than a hundred Oglala in the dead of winter, on account of a particular form of religious expression called the "Ghost Dance," which the federal government had declared illegal. Just two South Dakota blocks* away from the monument, you'll find the town of Whiteclay, Nebraska, a town built almost exclusively to sell alcohol to Indians on the reservation—after alcohol had been banned on the reservation. Of course, the reason they were living on Pine Ridge in the first place was because the US had reneged on an established treaty and driven the Sioux out of their sacred grounds in the Black Hills, because someone had found gold. When that was finished, they marked the occasion by carving a massive monument to themselves on the side of a mountain. They even found a Klan-member to design the thing. And voila, Mount Rushmore.

What the white settlers did to Native Americans is another one of those “oh that” topics….the travesty of which is dismissed or downplayed.  There are many ways to tap dance around the issues but the truth is that America belonged to the natives who lived here.  The Indians.  White European settlers took it from them in the most underhanded, sneaky ways.  These white European settlers were our ancestors,  We, too, are culpable. 


And one other topic to check out is a refutation of the catchy little ditty that goes something like….


Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all (most)terrorists are Muslims. 


“Except the 94.6"% that aren’t”  Check out this article that challenge the truth of that belief in the States. And check out "Except the 99.6% that aren't" that challenges that belief in Europe.  


And with this post, I bid this topic adieu…at least for the time being.