Oh America - Lincoln Stands Behind Gandhi

Tuesday 28th February 2017 18:33 EST
 

Now the statue of Lincoln stands behind Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square in Britain. How fitting. Your greatest leader, a man who so loathed slavery and segregation and racism stands behind the man who actually built the largest of democracies and brought about the end of Empires. It was an Indian, who finished the work an American only wished for. It was an Indian who created a country where a Muslim was a President – time and again.

So instead of attacking Indians, you should be building statues to them – as the British do.

“Did you know that two thousand years ago a Roman citizen could walk across the face of the known world free of the fear of molestation? He could walk across the earth unharmed, cloaked only in the words "Civis Romanis" - I am a Roman citizen. So great was the retribution of Rome, universally understood as certain, should any harm befall even one of its citizens.” So wrote Aaron Sorkin.

Where was the protection for the Indian slain in Kentucky, USA? Where is the retribution for the families and where is the warning to the rest of the world that Indians shall walk this earth unharmed, lest the clenched fist of the most mighty democracy in the history of mankind comes crashing down on your house!?

Why does there need to be polite diplomatic noises? Proportionality – why? Why does the Prime Minister not pick up the phone? The External Affairs Minister – who to her credit expedites visas via twitter. Why not a blasting roar to the face of Donald Trump – you shall be held responsible?

I don’t mean a surgical strike. Maybe I watch too many movies but we live in surreal times. Why should they not know from Kansas to Kentucky from New York to New Orleans, that you better be damn sure before you take an Indian life.

And of all nations, Americans self-proclaiming incessantly their greatness should remember they are a nation borne from genocide. God, how many times do we have to tell them, they are all immigrants, so quick to shed their roots to pledge allegiance and to a flag and ideal yet deny their ancestry – what fickle loyalty is that? What rabid senseless love that brings you to kill others based on nationality alone.

Oh and before you say it happens in other countries, then remind me which other country ever self-proclaims its self-greatness day in and day out – we, the rest of the world know our faults, we do not deny them in delusionqln self-aggrandisement.

Oh America, yet again from slavery to segregation to the latest death you have been brought low. It is not the Mexican nor the Indian that harms you or wishes you ill, you do it all yourself. It was not the foreigner who enforced racist segregation within your shores.

Have you considered for one moment that the period post-segregation, these past 40 years, were an aberration, not a hope? Lincoln is dead.


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