Friday morning America woke up to learn about yet another horrific act of violence. This time we woke up and discovered 12 people were killed and dozens more wounded in a cinema. It was one more venue disturbed by violence.
Chief Big Foot and His People Frozen in Our Memory
By 11 pm Friday night, CNN's Don Lemon was calling the incident the deadliest massacre in American history.
I was trying to write for today's edition, but that erroneous statement made me pause for a moment to think:
He must not remember Wounded Knee where some 150 Lakota men, women and children were massacred by the US Calvary. We, American Indians do!
Of course, American Indian history is not really part of required curricular, so I guess Mr. Lemon never learned about Wounded Knee. I always remember Wounded Knee whenever there are mass killings, especially when they occur on American soil. Wounded Knee is on American soil.
Without learning American Indian history, the average American never fully understands that the United States is a nation that was built on violence.
To paraphrase the Bible, "we are reaping what we have sown." And, I am not rejoicing over it, so don't get mad at me.
Personally, I would hope we could move forward as a society free of violence. We may have tougher gun control laws though. We may have to eliminate more automatic weapons - the kind that can spray a magazine full of ammunition in seconds. We may want some computer to keep track of why certain people feel as if they need to build a personal arsenal of deadly weapons with ammunition.
We may have to have more regulation on violent video games. Frankly, I am always amazed at how and why children are taught at an early age it is okay to murder people in video games. The points keep going up as more people are killed by shooting them or blowing them up in these violent games. I find those games appalling.
We may have to learn that terrorism is terrorism whether it is committed by an American citizen or non-American. It seems as Americans, we want a quick assurance that acts - such as what happened in the Aurora cinema - was not an act of terrorism by some anti-American group.
Somehow, we take comfort in the fact we were not attacked by a foreign enemy. It is almost as if the network media talking heads breathe a sigh of relief when it is disclosed by Homeland Security that violent acts were committed by a deranged gunman who acted alone.
Yet, Friday was a sad day in America.
We all need to pray for the families of those who were killed and those who were wounded. We need to pray for peace and all work together for a society free of hatred and violence.
And, all Americans should learn about and remember Wounded Knee.
posted July 21, 2012 9:50 am edt
http://www.nativenewsnetwork.com/american-indians-remember-the-massacre-at-wounded-knee-whenever-mass-murders-take-place.html
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