Posted on 10/08/2012 5:07:01 PM PDT by Libloather
How family lore shapes character
By James Carroll
October 08, 2012
**SNIP**
When Oklahoma was made a state in 1907, barely four decades before Warren was born there, it incorporated the so-called Indian Territory that culmination of the multiple betrayals of Native Americans, an end of the trail of tears. The Cherokee people, in particular, paid the price of the forced relocation across thousands of miles, with thousands dead. More than in the rest of America, ghosts of the Indian wars abound in Oklahoma. Warrens family, tracing itself to those Cherokees, was haunted by them. That the anti-Indian prejudice directed at her parents, like some bloodlines themselves, is impossible to document only underscores its viciousness. Bigotry thrives on innuendo.
For us, the point is that Warren was marked early on by visceral identification with dispossessed victims. Perhaps not coincidentally, her professional life has been defined by an acute sense of wrongs inflicted upon whole classes of people, especially those confronting bankruptcy. Character, Warren said in last weeks debate, is how you live your life.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...
My grandmother was born and raised in Purcell. She was 19 on the day Oklahoma became a state and the then state capital, Purcell, celebrated. She always thought that the musical was written about her. Except for the dark and naughty bits.
I love it. A liberal Democrat defending Fauxchohantus, saying that it doesn’t matter if she’s really Cherokee or not. It matters that she BELIEVED she was and that belief shaped her character.
Lying about practicing without a law license excluded, of course.
The fact that my bank doesn’t show that million dollars in my account only makes it more real.
Oklahoma does convey what an exciting time that must have been, such a feeling of potential.
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