Costs of Colonization

 I confess to not being a writer of poetry and a very poor reader also, but I'm interested in drawing borders as imposing reality and colonization, so I had to take a look at Mapmaking and Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry

Living Nations, Living Words insists on the present and future vitality of First Peoples, refusing another lie that would place indigenous peoples in a frozen past. These nations—and these words—are living, even at the points where their lives bear witness to injustice. The urgency of this project is hard to overstate given another map that has been emerging over the past few months, a map of old news confirmed by new technologies, news of the remains of more than a thousand people so far found in unmarked graves on the grounds of residential schools where indigenous children were taken in the genocidal project of colonization. This map confirms the stories survivors have told for generations, and while at present it is most densely marked north of the U.S-Canada border, Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland has committed to seeking the truth about these horrific histories within the boundaries of what is now known as the United States. The map’s plot points will continue to accrue, and the grief will continue to overflow any geographic lines.

The conservatives think we have nothing to apologize in our American history.  I guess that means I am not a conservative. The conservatives like having the evangelical Christians voting for them and I cannot think of anything in Christianity that makes America sinless. 

The nation has screwed up. The nation needs to confess and atone by doing better. After all, the nation expects such behavior out of people like me.