"Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation.

It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.

Genocide is directed against the national group as an entity, and the actions involved are directed against individuals, not in their individual capacity but as members of a national group."

--Rafael Lemkin, inventor of the term "genocide" (emphasis mine).

—decent with grafiks, great with hate, website Wake Up or Die

If you pretend that history magically begins with the formation of the (American) Colonies, you can also pretend that the Virginia Tech massacre was somehow larger than the Sand Creek Massacre, and thus trumpet the (inarguably horrific) VT incident as THE LARGEST MASS MURDER IN AMERICA'S HISTORY. But I suppose in that instance, it is accurate, if the author of such a headline means the "America" that rose up after the majority of deaths of the indigenous on these lands. I know, I know! Some think I am being romantic just pretending those people should figure in to our moral and philosophical accounting.

If we pretend that History and all her lessons begins with the cohesion of America's southern states, after La Invasión del Norteamérica claimed half of Mexico's land, then we can get very haughty and superior and even violent to those who we now call "invaders." We have a cozy, fractured morality. It cannot meet in the back, as they say.

And we can repeat the method until eventually we turn everyone into an enemy or a people that fears us and goes to measures to protect themselves against us and our irrational philosophy of Naked Justified Aggression.

Let's take some words from President Polk's diary 09 of May, 1846. This was when he was agitating to take California.

I stated to the Cabinet that up to this time, as we knew, we had heard of no open act of aggression by the Mexican army, but that the danger was imminent that such acts would be committed. I said that in my opinion, we had ample cause of war, and that it was impossible that we could stand in status quo [original itals], or that I could remain silent much longer."

—James K. Polk, Polk: The Diary of A President, 1845-1849, ed. Allan Nevins (New York, 1968), p. 81

Wow. Doesn't that sound familiar! No mushroom cloud talk, but he's got the fake imminent threat down and everything, the whole fearful rush to action based on a greedy thirst.

From The Course of Mexican History, Oxford University Press, 1999:

[Polk] went before Congress and delivered a war message that bore little resemblance to the truth. The message was remarkable for its distortion and provocative to the absurd:

We have tried every effort at reconciliation. The cup of forbearance had been exhausted even before the recent information from the frontier of the Del Norte. But now, after reiterated menaces, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory, and shed American blood on American soil. She has proclaimed that hostilities exist, and that the two nations are now at war.

With a provision limiting debate to two hours, the declaration of war was stampeded through Congress. How different things looked from Mexico City: not only had the Americans taken Texas, but they had changed the traditional boundary to double its size! When the Mexicans sought to defend themselves against the additional encroachment, the Yankees cried that Mexico had invaded the United States!

Lies to rally the populace, rushed votes, greed-justified war and murder. And hey, whaddya know, the gold rush happens for America, on "American soil,"—of which there is now so much more of—and of course we all must justify what Polk did! Let's not even include the debate in our dialogue or memory. Let's make that one a moot point. After all, choosing "truth" in its actual form would mean....well. You can fill in the blank. Different lessons for America? Different self image? Yikes. The one we're sort of...getting now around the world anyway? So everyone learns from our giant, greedy grabs...but us.

Or maybe we do. Some of us might take certain lessons from it. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if Bush et al read up on not just Churchill, but Polk and Slidell and crew. After all, The American invision into Mexico doubled the country's size, net us a bunch of "treasure" and the people were cool with the way it all happened. To my knowledge, the dissent for invading Mexico was much stronger than that against invading Iraq. True, it's not a perfect metaphor—we're not actually annexing Iraq land, but we're squeezing them for today's (black) gold. But I'm not claiming a perfect metaphor. Just posing the question if we questioned the morality of invading in the manner and intention of Polk....if we rejected that method, would we be in Iraq now?

I wonder. And yet...those on the Left who bemoan Iraq...do they justify the "Mexican American War"? Or are they totally cool with that one?

But as might easily be misunderstood in these times I make such points, my case here is not that we should punish the descendents of whomever were the settlers and "patriots" and invaders. It is not, either, that we should give all the land "back." (What, would I come forward so that half of my genetic makeup could claim some dirt and gold?) No. I know some people infer this from my line of reasoning, and maybe that's understandable. I don't spit it out verbatim, perhaps.

My point in all this is that we should learn lessons from these events. And from the cost of them, even in terms of world image and generations of feeling and perception. Lessons I don't see us benefitting from. Mostly justifying, ignoring, or lying about. Fake fables, truncated truth, misshappen morality. I don't need to see the border fall down (It doesn't exist anyway, so how can it be removed? Only walls and fences are installed or removed) I just want to know the same greed-driven pain and slaughter can end one day, this cycle we should know better than to be participating in over and over and over. It cannot end without the truth being discussed.

Why would a People cut themselves off from true learning? Dear lessons have already been paid, in much blood. Why are we not being wise? Why are we not melding all these happenings together, turning them over and seeing what a larger lesson would be? That is what must happen if we are to really change and grow for the best as a nation. Instead, we typically choose to reinforce those lessons that lend themselves to the teaching that America the United States does always dominate and is at all times superior. But while we make sure we retain that illusion in our media and in all our lessons, at what cost do we do so? What lessons are we missing? Will this imbalance doom any chance of true growth instead of keep us unquestionably mighty, as such propaganda intends?

Never gaining the true wisdom from these incidents means not addressing them in a way that heals our populace. It means not facing the truth and changing. It means doing the same thing that we already know has hurt untold amounts of people and caused such pain and negativity to ripple on and on and on and radiate. You don't need a PhD to interpret the stats on arrests by race, or if it's cool to shoot someone fifty times who is not armed, or to hunt them with a rifle because they don't have their papers. You don't need to have climbed an Ivory tower to know when your own country is spinning lies to justify an oil-grab. You don't need to have gathered a thousand signatures or be certified in anything to know when a people who on one hand are being exploited for their labor and taxes that help America do her thing, are with the other hand being equated with disease-ridden subhumans by mainstream media that sustains itself by infecting minds with fear. You don't need to be brown or even a rocket-scientist to know that violence justified by the Othering of so many continues, and that racism is alive and hungry in America.

Even today on our great hallowed ground of America, we are bombarded with the shattered echoes, with the ignorance from, we still navigate, the cratered and dangerous terrain of the Haunted Land.

[as a side note, this page does make me sad. i can definitely understand her becoming this way. it's a multiple-tragedy, including the conclusions such a survivor has made. ]