Colonialism, American Exceptionalism and Obama's World in 2016!

          I'm just finishing reading a great book entitled, "Albion's Seed, Four British Folkways In America."  It is an extremely fascinating look at how four different cultures from England were brought to America and imposed on both the native and African populations.  The collision of these groups was a cultural process of high complexity. However, in the end the four cultures of English colonialism won.  The Massachusetts Bay colony shaped the future of their region when they imposed a culture on the new world that was defined by church membership (who's in, who's out), created a standard model for town government based on eastern Lincolnshire, London, Middlesex, and Hertfordshire puritan culture.  In Virginia, the culture was built on the cavaliers who came to rebuild their English lifestyle on large plantations like they had in the English countryside. Problem was they had no "servants" to maintain their lifestyle.  Early on, the real purpose of planting the cross at Cape Henry and the six other crosses around the Chesapeake Bay was to subjugate the native populations, dispossess them of their lands, and to bring them into perpetual slavery. (see http://www.doctrineofdiscovery.org)  Colonial Governor, Sir William Berkley, made many critical decisions when he recruited a colonial elite, encouraged the growth of slavery drove out the Puritans and Quakers, and discouraged schools and printing all in the name of protecting his own cavalier lifestyle.  When the native populations refused to comply he imported "Africans" into Virginia - introducing American slavery to the south.  Even though, William Penn's Holy Experiment is admirable and provide the basis for an American melting-pot, his cavalier background never questioned what right the English had in just taking or purchasing land in the new world.  I don't remember reading about "for sale" signs being posted by the first nation people nor advertisements taken out in the Sunday Evening Time of London by them.  William Penn brought Euro-centric values from England, Germany and Holland and gave us a system of institutions that reintroduced principles of English government without involving his own slaves or native opinions of the government that was being imposed on them.  Finally, the fourth culture introduced from the isles of Britain, was the Scottish Highlands and Northern England which permeate the mid-west.

       What did this give us?  An internal conflict among immigrant elites who supported the founding purposes of their colony, but disagreed on issues of authority, order, and individual autonomy. Sound familiar?  The second major theme that emerged in all these four British folklores was the myth of "Manifest Destiny," that somehow America was God's chosen land for God's new chosen people.  Today it's called "American Exceptionalism."  My question is, "what did the natives think?"  What is the historic view of First Nations people and those groups that have emerged from the underside of history known as slavery?  I don't remember the idea of subjugation as being a Christian idea.  All through the 19th century our republic wrestled with the issue of slavery and gave us a civil war that has not ceased nor has it resulted in the end of slavery and racism.  There are still more slaves in America today than prior to the civil war!  So, please explain to me the benefits of colonialism.

       I recently went to see Obama 2016.  It was a movie based on an upper cast, Indian's (meaning India) take on Obama's work to stop "colonialism" dead in it's tracks.  The underpinning of this movie was to say that anyone involved in ending "colonialism" is anti-American.  I humbly disagree.  We need to repent as a nation and get ourselves out of the business of imposing "our values"  on other nations.  We need to repent of trying to subjugate other nations to "democracy" so that our oil companies, multi-national corporations and banks will stop raping other nations of their resources for perpetuating our own American resources.  We need to use our own.  We can sustain ourselves without having to take other nations resources and deplete them so that we can enrich ourselves.  I'm with Obama if this take on his mission is accurate and I am not a socialist or communist.  Do we have to label our president as a "not real American" or "real citizen" because he's anti-imperialism. God did not call the USA to become the new "colonial" power of the world.  We are not called to "import our pornography," "our self-centered lifestyles," or "way of doing business," on China, North Korea, Iran or any other country that values their own cultures vs. ours.  Our culture is not "Better."  The notions that Romney, a Mormon, committed to "manifest destiny" or Utopian Mormon ideas would restore America is fundamentally off base. Restore America to what?  What time?  What history?  Whose's perspective?  The dispossessed First Nations and the apartheid system that still divides them today from equal access to American life?  Or, how about "slavery," "Jim Crow," and abortion rights that are enforced to continue the greatest "Black genocide" in American history?  How about Lynching instead of propping up the 10.4% of the black population that is locked up in our American (Free) prison system. We have 25% of the world prison population incarcerated. Wow!  And we want to import this stuff and tell the world "we are the greatest nation on the earth."  
             I'm thankful that Roosevelt gave our nation a way out of the economic depression of the 1930s.  Last I checked he was such a good president that our grandparents and great grand-parents elected him four times to office.  He built the infra-structure necessary for private businesses to succeed. He gave us our national park system we all now enjoy.  He saved the "Grand Canyon" from developers.  So who is going to rebuild our schools, fix our electrical grid, and make bio-fuels so that we can get off our oil dependency?  -Private contractors, public government employees, and those illegal aliens who cut our grass, run our 7-11 stores, and keep the 20 somethings from manual labor, right?  Is this as un-American as some claim? I have a brilliant idea... get your 20 something to do manual labor and see how high the grass gets in your yard. Oh, I'm sorry- they're too busy online, texting, and listening to their headphones to hear your request of them.

           We are out of control!  Did you know that George Washington warned us to stay out of other nations affairs?  Despite, what Romney and the Koch Brothers tell you, "Barack Obama" in his first major speech on foreign policy which was delivered on April 23, 2007, to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs identified the problems that he believes the current foreign policy has caused. He outlined the five ways, he believed, the United States can lead again, focused on "common security", "common humanity", and remaining "a beacon of freedom and justice for the world":

• "Bringing a responsible end" to the war in Iraq and refocusing on the broader region.
• "Building the first truly 21st century military and showing wisdom in how we deploy it."
• "Marshalling a global effort" to secure, destroy, and stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
• "Rebuild and construct the alliances and partnerships necessary to meet common challenges and confront common threats," including global warming.
• Invest in our common humanity" through foreign aid and supporting the "pillars of a sustainable democracy – a strong legislature, an independent judiciary, the rule of law, a vibrant civil society, a free press, and an honest police force."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    My only question is this, "Is this colonialism?  Or is he really dedicated to end colonialism as the movie purports.

I am an advocate for repentance, reconciliation and healing.  However, I am very interested in the view of a new friend I have made among the Leni-lenopi tribe.  He said to me, "Mike, when white people do reconciliation with Native groups; they leave feeling good that they have apologized.  We go back home to the same injustices we came from."  So I ask my friends on the extreme right (Christians who think that voting republican is the only position of a Christian)  What does it mean in Micah 6 "What does the Lord require of you? To do justice" ?  Black, white, Hispanic, Asian or first nations- what does justice look like to you?  I'm convinced it's not about undressing Pocahontas,  cutting her hair, teaching her proper English or putting her in an proper English dress to make her acceptable to a prevailing "WHITE" culture.  Are you?

           Yes, this election is about America's future?  But who's vision? What color does America's future look like?  Is it colonialism or anti-imperialism?  Both candidate's represent a view...  vote your conscience.  I'm with anti-imperialism!