Facts about American freedom

This week’s purveyor of non-truth and non-fact is a Squad member of little import or concern, and the truth is I should ignore her, as time will undoubtedly do. Her name is Cori Bush, a Missouri freshman congresswoman. She is anti-America, anti-capitalism and certainly, anti-White people, as her recent tweet, confirms. A refresher if you missed her tweet, I certainly did until I was researching another issue and her blithering tripe revealed itself. Her tweet: “When they say that the Fourth of July is about American freedom, remember this: the freedom they’re referring to is for White people. This land is stolen land and Black people still aren’t free.”

Obviously, I disagree. Since Ms. Bush is a far left-winger of the already left-leaning Democrat Party, you know I’m opposed to such blatant hypocrisy being spouted by such leftists, but America is the land of free speech, no matter how utterly stupid, ignorant, conceited, divisive and repugnant such speech is. The scary thing for me is that there are congressional districts that elect such nut jobs. Republicans have their nut jobs, too, but right now, the Dems are packing the Congress with anti-Americans. 

Let’s address Ms. Bush’s claim that America is stolen land. FACT: The original 13 colonies were generally peacefully occupied. Yes, there were skirmishes with some tribes but there were no recorded deeds showing who owned what. That concept was lost on the collectivism of Native Americans. And while that’s sweet and dandy, it makes for a tough time when trying to justify ownership of land, especially when the occupying tribe simply conquered some other tribe to claim the land anyway. 

FACT: The Cherokee people first greeted Hernando DeSoto in 1540. Over the next 200 years, the Cherokee entered treaties with the British, Portuguese and Spanish governments. There was even a newspaper printed in Cherokee and English. They were a “civilized” tribe.

FACT: Some Cherokee created plantations and owned slaves, too. The Treaty of New Echota, signed by some Cherokee leaders but not all, moved the Cherokee to land in Oklahoma. Arguably, the Cherokee got a raw deal. FACT: But the land wasn’t stolen. It was bargained away. As was Manhattan. And most Native American lands in this New World. Getting a raw deal sucks, but so it goes. FACT: Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase cost $15,000,000, which the new country did not have. Who financed the purchase? English banks. For the colonies that just defeated their king. To be paid to their enemies, the French. Messed up, but that’s history for you. 

FACT: The land in the Southwest and Northwest was obtained via treaties with Native Americans or battles against… not the indigenous people but the Spanish, Mexicans and British. I’m not going to go any deeper into expansionism than this: America grew because the American Spirit drew in millions of settlers from all over the world looking for liberty, prosperity and freedom. FACT: How many slaves were sold—by African warlords—into slavery? Twelve to 14 million. Yet 500,000 slaves landed on American shores, the rest went to Brazil, West Indies, Mexico, all over South America and even to the Arabian Peninsula. Over 900 years, slaves were traded from Africa to countries the world over, including the Middle East, which The Squad clamors about.

FACT: Slavery is a horrific concept to me, but again, history is replete with incredible atrocities. FACT: Cherokee tribes exhibited the strongest color prejudice of all Native Americans. FACT: The five civilized tribes, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Muscogee and Seminole, all held African slaves as chattel. FACT: The Cherokee, in a newly fashioned constitution (1827), prohibited their slaves from voting, owning property, selling goods to earn money, and from marrying Natives.

FACT: In 1860, just before the Civil War broke out, slaves made up 18% of the Cherokee nation, with over 21,000 slaves. Hardly an insignificant number. FACT: The Cherokee denied any African American the right to vote or hold office. If a child’s mother had any African heritage, the child was a slave. So, you see, just one example from the Cherokee Nation is not such a pretty look for the natives.

FACT: While the Squad and their minions claim that the Founding Fathers only went to war because England (1776, if you remember) was about to outlaw slavery; that meant that the White men were also fortune tellers because England didn’t ban slave trading until 1807 (the same year as the United States) and didn’t abolish slavery until 1833, except in certain colonial expanses such as India where slavery remained legal until after our Civil War ended.

I could go on and on with the atrocities committed by everyone when it comes to slavery. The entire concept is repugnant. But how does Cori Bush handle this: The country she bashes as a bunch of White men out for themselves battled Native Americans who held slaves in harsher conditions than Southern plantation owners. What happened to “the enemy of your enemy is your friend?”

She also tweeted: “Black people still aren’t free.” How much freer is there? FACT: 364,511 Union soldiers, from an almost entirely White army, died fighting to end slavery. Another 300,000 or so soldiers were wounded. FACT: Nowhere else in THE WORLD did that happen—that one race went to war against members of their own race to free another race. 

Now, to be fair, she didn’t say free from whom or what? If she meant that some Blacks are not free because of the bondage of the Democratic Party, I agree! I suspect the America-hater in her means something else. FACT: The Dems have spent $15 trillion on the war on poverty, to no perceptible positive effect. FACT: It’s time to try something different. And hating America isn’t going to make lives better, but worse. 

Kelly Burke, retired attorney, former district attorney and magistrate judge, writes about the law, rock ’n’ roll, and politics or anything that strikes him. These articles are not designed to give legal advice, but are designed to inform the public about how the law affects their daily lives. Contact Kelly at dakellyburke@gmail.com comment on this article or suggest articles that you’d like to see, and visit his website at www.kellyrburke.com to view prior columns.

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