Excellent article!!!
This put me in mind of something I read in a book about the British Raj. As we all know, the Brits sought to "impose" if not their religion than certainly their morals, laws, and civilization on the people of the sub-continent.
One of the things the British uprooting was the native practice of suttee where the living widow tied to the (often decaying) corpse of her late husband, and is burned to death on on his funeral pyre. When the newly arrived British "over lord" at his new post, and was told of an upcoming suttee he called the chief of the village and told him that from hence forth suttee, among other native customs, was strictly prohibited.
"But it the custom of my people!" protested the chief. "It is an ancient tradition. You, an outsider, wouldn't understand!"
"And it is an ancient tradition of my," replied the Brit, "to hang murders. So you can rest assured that if you follow your tradition, I most certainly will follow mine."
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The point is that no, not all civilizations/manners/morals/outlooks/patterns of behavior are equal. And that just because they are "traditional" (like suttee and cannibalism) does not mean they are untouchable.
When people talk about indentured servitude they seem to think it was kind of an apprentice program for whitey... learn a trade, get room and board, that kind of thing. What they don't realize was that the law was set up so that the victim never escaped - the "I owe my soul to the Company Store" sort of thing.
Slavery -- It never was just a Black Thing.
What we have here are not merely differences of opinion, but differences so fundamental that it challenges the foundations of the nation and its survival.
Until the enemy within is crushed the United States of America will never win another war. IMO.
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