Mr. Cheek must have lost his mind, or is suffering from
temporary insanity. To say that Americans stole Native American
land is the equivalent of spitting in the face of patriots, taking
shots at generations of heroes and desecrating the graves of the
men and women who made this nation the
”
last best hope
”
of humanity in Lincoln’s words.
Editor,
Mr. Cheek must have lost his mind, or is suffering from temporary insanity. To say that Americans stole Native American land is the equivalent of spitting in the face of patriots, taking shots at generations of heroes and desecrating the graves of the men and women who made this nation the “last best hope” of humanity in Lincoln’s words.
Frederick Jackson Turner’s “manifest destiny” theory was an attempt to explain our history. Mr. Cheek may be more enlightened by Theodore Roosevelt’s four volume “The Winnng of the West” (1889-1896), or Woodrow Wilson’s “A History of the American People” (1901), or Charles and Mary Beard’s “America in Midpassage” (1939), or Winston Churchill’s “History of the English-Speaking Peoples” (1956).
Americans conquered the wilderness to create the best that civilization has achieved. On behalf of my ancestors who fought in the Revolution, the War of 1812 and in the Allegheny mountains of Western Pennsylvania with the revered Pennsylvania rifle, my great uncle who fought at Antieta, Fredericksburg and Cahncellorsville with the Pennsylvania Volunteers, my uncle Jake who was a doughboy in W.W.I., my father and uncles who fought and died in W.W.II and Korea, and my cousin who returned from Vietnam a mental basket case, and all the other men and women who help make and keep this democracy, I demand an apology.
I’ll bet my history degree, my law degree and my Bar card that Mr. Cheek would not be enjoying his freedom of expression if Americans returned this “stolen” nation back to the Indians. The law of nations has through civilization included the right of conquest by victorious states over defeated states. There is nothing “stolen” by this process except in the minds of the defeated, and the traitors. Caveat Viator!
Joseph P. Thompson, Tres Pinos
