America, at it’s core is a nation struggling to identify itself as a true democracy. A country of the people, for the people. It is striving to be a nation representative of freedom and one of equality. These were and still are monumental goals to achieve. Especially, when we look to our past and see that for every attempt we try to secure these goals, there is an example of the opposite effect. We strive for freedom but at the almost annihilation of a race. We strive for equality but on the backs of slavery. Alexis De Tocqueville states, “ Egotism blights the germ of all virtue; individualism, at first, only saps the virtues of public life; but, in the long run, it attacks and destroys all others and at length is absorbed in downright egotism.” When we reach for a national goal we have to recognize that we do not step over others to achieve that goal. But, also as individuals, we must learn that that selfishness begets selfishness. And how can we recognize the sameness of equal rights for other races such as Native Americans and African Americans with the rights of the GLBT? Are we not all for want of the same wants and needs? we are more alike than separate.
We have read in The Narrative and Captivity of the Restoration Of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, “ …I have seen the extreme vanity of this world.; One hour I have been in health, and wealthy wanting nothing. But the next hour, in sickness and wounds and death, having nothing but sorrow and affliction…” We only need to look, to our own faults on review of the Native Americans. While consumed with the our own interests we introduced the “Noble Savages” to alcohol, without any concern for a people who we now know are biologically incapable of metabolizing it. What are we to expect of a people than the behavior cited in Mrs. Mary Rowlandson descriptions, “…He was the first Indian I saw drunk all the while that I was amongst them…” She later likens her own treatment and afflictions to that of the drops of alcohol to the Indians, by quoting Hebrews 12.6 and stating “…But now I see the Lord had His time to scourge and chasten me. The portion of some of some is to have their afflictions by drops, now one drop and then another; but the dregs of the cup, the wine of astonishment, like a sweeping rain that leaveth no food, did the Lord prepare to be my portion. Affliction I wanted, and affliction I had full measure ( I thought), pressed down and running over. Essentially, we all are our brother’s keepers. To say we were not aware of this effect alcohol played on Native Americans is purposefully ignorant. Thomas Morton discussed it in his piece Manners and Customs of the Indians, 1637,fully admitting that farmers are aware of the consequences’ and effects on Native American because he was aware of the drastic consequences, in his case a drunken Indian killing himself.
We have read of the concerns of Elias Boudinot, an accomplished and educated Cherokee, in An Address to Whites(1488-1497) “…She will become not a great but a faithful ally of the United States. In times of Peace she will plead the common liberties of America. In times of war, her intrepid sons will sacrifice their lives in your defence…” We learned from our reading Elias, at first supported the idea of assimilation and improvement for Cherokees. Then being concerned with his own individualistic needs turned to full removal of Cherokees from their homelands. His own ego led him to sign the Treaty of New Echota in 1835, thereby resulting in the mass removal of the Trail of Tears. He was merely a minor voice for the Native Americans but allowed his mind to be changed, which ultimately led to his own murder.
Andrew Jackson wrote, On Indian Removal: The President’s letter to Congress, “…enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and in their own rude institutions; will retard the progress of decay, which is lessening their numbers, and perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the government and through the influence of good councils, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian Community…” Jackson, working on behalf of the famers, again concerned for himself and his political careers, allowed for the Trail of Tears to occur even making Native Americans give up their belongs and livestock, not just their land. This whole address to Congress reads more like a brochure for a vacation than for what it really was.
Our country is one of great democracy. We will continue to move forward and be strong while being concerned with individual freedoms. But, in doing so, we need to constantly be concerned that we don’t fall into the trap of individualism. We need to recognize that Thomas jefferson was right, "What is true of every member of the society, individually, is true of them all collectively; since the rights of the whole can be no more than the sum of the rights of the individuals." The GLBT should be allowed to marry freely, equally.
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