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Let me just put it this way.

90% of people in any country are idiots.

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I don't know what this thread is about and I don't care...

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I haven't posted here in a while. But hey, I have more time on my hands than I've had in a long time and I have something to say.

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With the American bashing that goes on, one thing to ask is this. If you were relocated to the US and lived in the same environment as Americans, would you be any different? In this context, "you" doesn't mean you as individuals, but you, collectively, as a society, culture or nation. I already know how many would answer, a resounding "no".

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We *ARE* you. You are looking in a mirror.

We are large numbers of British relocated to a new land and a new beginning. We are the French, the Germans, the Spanish and the Dutch. Scandinavians, Austrians, Italians, Greeks and Poles. You came here to escape religious persecution or violent revolution. Maybe you came here for economic reasons or to escape a tyrannical government. Or maybe you came here simply looking for adventure. But regardless of why you came, you did come.

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You came to this new beginning. You of various backgrounds and cultures came here. You hoped for a better life.

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So here you are, a group of people in a new land. It's a fertile land with excellent farming. It has water, it has fishing, it has plentyful timber and all sorts of other resources. You have ties with the world for trade.

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It is estimated that over a million people lived in Cuba before the arrival of the Europeans. Twenty-five years later there were only 2,000 left. Large numbers had been killed, while others died of starvation, disease, committed suicide or had died from the consequences of being forced to work long hours in the gold mines.

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After the arrival of the Europeans there was a sharp decline in the local population of most of the islands in the Caribbean Sea. This created a problem for the Europeans as they needed labour to exploit the natural resources of these islands. Eventually the Europeans came up with a solution: the importation of slaves from Africa. By 1540, an estimated 10,000 slaves a year were being brought from Africa to replace the diminishing local populations.
The death-rate amongst slaves was high. To replace their losses, plantation owners encouraged the slaves to have children. Child-bearing started around the age of thirteen, and by twenty the women slaves would be expected to have four or five children. To encourage child-bearing some population owners promised women slaves their freedom after they had produced fifteen children. Slaves were in the fields from sunrise to sunset and at harvest time they did an eighteen hour day. Women worked the same hours as the men and pregnant women were expected to continue until their child was born. Only a month's rest was allowed for recovery from child-bearing. The women then carried the child on their backs while they worked in the fields. Around the age of five, slave children would also be expected to work on the plantation.

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Fast forward. Here we Americans are. We are you. European history is American history. All the wars. All the empires. Our culture. Our core beliefs. We are you. Our history is your history. After all, it really hasn't been all that many generations since you first came here.

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In 1850 Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law. Only John P. Hale, Charles Sumner, Salmon Chase and Benjamin Wade voted against the measure. The law stated that in future any federal marshal who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave could be fined $1,000. People suspected of being a runaway slave could be arrested without warrant and turned over to a claimant on nothing more than his sworn testimony of ownership. A suspected black slave could not ask for a jury trial nor testify on his or her behalf.

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