" It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful all too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Every person is equally entitled to protection by law to fully enjoy the gifts of heaven and the fruits of superior industry,economy and virtue. But when the laws undertake to add to these natural & just advantages - as to the likes of artifical distinctions,to grant titles,gratuites and exclusive privileges to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, then the humble members of society, who have neither time or means of securing like favors for themselves have a right to complain of & alter the injustice of their government". President Andrew Jackson

-- TomK (tjk@cac.net), May 23, 2001

Answers

An interesting and inspiring quote. I would be even more impressed if it wasn't ol' Andy Jackson who coveted the lands of the Southeastern US and had some of my people force-marched to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears. Guess those gifts of Heaven only go to white folks.

-- melina b. (goatgalmjb1@hotmail.com), May 23, 2001.

Melinda-Too bad all our tribes couldn't have gotten together to stop the europeans from coming here in the first place. Just imagine what our country would look like...Just the same as it did then...no pollution...no endangered species...no roads...nothing but nature the way God made it!

-- debra in ks (solid-dkn@msn.com), May 24, 2001.

Debra,

"no endangered species"

That is a nonsensical fantasy. The "indigenous" people wiped out quite a few animals in North America before european supposedly even arrived here.

-- William in Wi (gnarledmaw@lycos.com), May 24, 2001.

O.K. I'll bite William--Could you name each of those species for me so I can be better educated?

-- debra in ks (solid-dkn@msn.com), May 24, 2001.

I would have to agree with William plus add that many many tribes would use up the resources surrounding their villages and then move on to other locations and leave behind just wasteland. Also before whites and after there was alot of fighting among tribes, the Iroquois and the Ojibways constantly fought.Before that when Champlain made a settlement in 1603 on the St Lawrence he learned that continous war between the Iroquois and Montagnais,Maliseet and Algonkin tribes were going on since 1565. The Sioux orginally live in Maine but thru wars and tribe fighting were force all the way to western Minnesota and Dakotas. You cannot say that before whites that the descendants of the first founders of North America were any better then the whites. back then you have exactly what we have today, Some Indians are better then other Indians,Some whites are better then other whites,Some blacks are better then other blacks,Some Amish are better then other Amish and etc. etc.

-- Walkingwolf (Walkingwolf00@usa.net), May 24, 2001.

Walkingwolf-Could you name those tribes that left wastelands for me please?

-- debra in ks (solid-dkn@msn.com), May 24, 2001.

"It is" indeed "to be regretted that the rich and powerful all too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes." Jackson's attitude towards native Americans was not all that distant from Hitler's attitude towards Jews.

-- Paul Primrose (wprimeroselane@msn.com), May 25, 2001.

This really as nothing to do with the quote,I guess. Many years ago, I chatted with a Native American Indian woman about the white man coming here to America. She said that,if all the Native American Indian tribes would have united, they could have been able to drive the white man out. Unfortunately, her "old people" had said that it would never happen-that the tribes would forever be fighting each other. Unteresting!

-- Ardie from WI (ardie54965@hotmail.com), May 25, 2001.