June 25th is a sad day in American history and perhaps more ironic than ever. It was on this day in 1876 that the US military suffered one of it's worst defeats at Little Big Horn under General George Custer. Tensions were high in 1876 as the government tried to violently suppress the Native Americans. It is not a pretty story at all, which is likely why we all tend to forget the military blunders and the greed of the then-political and business leaders.
Yes, we do live in some hard rough and tumble days and the news isn't very pretty from one morning to the next. But let's not try to sweep away the past. Actually, 1876 has something of a peculiar ring about it.
And the Little Big Horn anniversary comes at a time when the Republican Gov. of South Carolina made national headlines for his, well, travels to South America. And just within the last three weeks, several Republican staffers in South Carolina were in the news for making racists comments (Michelle Obama and an escape gorilla and then, a tasteless white aspirin joke and then, a doctored presidential photo, okay from a Republican operative in nearby Tennessee I think, showing Barak Obama's white eyes) . The citizens of South Carolina have to, well, be doing some extra thinking (and praying for their well being) about their Custer-like political operatives.
It shows a culture of aggorgant racism and deception not much different than 1876. The cultural and immoral idiocacy is just not confined to South Carolina. They just happen to be in the news a lot lately.
Regardless, the photo is dedicated to those who were massacred on both sides in 1876 and those who still suffer from racist ego-maniacs and deceptive political leaders in 2009. May they all be gone - soon. Note: I did think about this when I took the photographs at this woodland pond. There was just a sense of calm and peace and terrible irony.
The great Nations of this land have suffered horribly, something we tend to overlook and we still have too many 1876 politicos who need to go.
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