I Warned You

Fray Bartoleme de Las Casas came to the West Indies as a Spanish colonist in 1502 but, becoming a priest and a fiery defender of the Indians, turned his voice and pen against the Spaniards' excesses.
He wrote: "The Spaniards made bets as to who would slit a man in two, or cut off his head at one blow; or they opened up his bowels. They tore the babies from their mother's breast by their feet, and dashed their heads against the rocks....They spitted the bodies of other babies, together with their mothers and all who were before them, on their swords..They hanged Indians, and by thirteens, in honor and reverence for our Redeemer and the twelve Apostles, they put wood underneath and, with fire, they burned the Indians alive........I saw all of the above things..........All these did my own eyes witness."
Columbus kept a diary. Upon first encountering Indians he wrote:" They are artless and generous with what they have, to such a degree as no one would believe but he who had seen it. Of anything they have, if it be asked for, they never say no, but do rather invite the person to accept it, and show as much lovingness as though they would give their hearts."
Two days later he wrote:"These people are very unskilled in arms...with fifty men they could all be subjected and made to do all that one wished."
Says a lot about the conscience of this country, embedded in the soul of this country, that Columbus went from recognizing the simple beauty and love of these people to recognizing that he could easily subjugate them for his own gain.
I believe that thinking is alive and well today in this country. We are no less mean spirited, no less coldly calculating than 15th century Spaniards.
Las Casas wrote:"Note here the natural, simple and kind gentleness and humble conditions of the Indians, and want of arms or protection, gave the Spaniards the insolence to hold them of little account.The Spaniards deal with them in any way they wish,without regard to sex, age, status or dignity."
That is how the population of this country thinks even today.
If you show consideration, if you are kind and gentle, almost all of the people who meet you will think you are an idiot. The same people who walk around with smug expressions, existing in sarcasm and an attitude that they know exactly how life works. When in truth they don't know a goddamn thing. And when in truth that approach to life continues to poison our society and rob us of the possibility to evolve as meaningful human beings.
The irony is that Indians were warriors. Highly evolved spiritually and culturally but fierce when they had to be. They were humble towards the white man because they thought they were gods. Guns and ships, even the color of the skin, were things Indians had never seen. They were respectful until the Spanirds' true nature was revealed. And then it was too late.
Indians were superior to white men spiritually and intellectually.  Some were farmers, others fishermen, others hunters depending on where they lived. They built advanced societies that functioned beautifully under severe conditions all across this country.
They created beautiful art and had a highly developed sense of the importance of family and community. And they understood and respected the delicate balance between man and nature. We rape nature and walk away grinning.
The Spaniards thought THEY were superior because they had guns and could travel across the ocean.
This could be the origin of the thought process in this country that respects violence, wealth, and exploitation over spirituality, beauty, sensitivity and intelligence.
It could be the reason this country cannot get past bigotry, stupidity and violence. We destroyed a spiritual nation and replaced it with inferior intelligence and a complete lack of spirituality.
The Arawaks were the people Columbus first met in1492. They numbered in the millions at that time. Fifty years later, 1542, they were decimated and practically extinct. Because they were slaughtered, enslaved and wiped out by diseases thoughtfully introduced by the Spaniards, against which they had no defenses.
This is the comment that floored me. "By 1542, fifty years after Columbus had first come upon them, the Arawak population was down to two hundred, and the Spaniards were replacing their labor with that of black slaves imported in chains from Africa."
They came to this country and viciously destroyed a culture, and then turned to another country to make slaves of their people.
What kind of soul knowingly wipes out a slice of humanity, learns nothing from that, and immediately sets about enslaving and torturing another slice of humanity?
It is disgusting and vile and it is the history of this country. I also believe it is the heart and soul of this country.
We are in essence a spiritually bankrupt nation that is destined to fall because of that.