President Lincoln and the Sioux Indian uprising in Minnesota in 1862

[Hess1865]

Try England, France, and Spain at various times flexing their power to achieve empires - or the Romans, Greeks, and Ottomans or the Monguls or the cavemen with the biggest tree limbs! In far more cases than America, I believe those civilizations were the aggressors. I also think that America has often been the force that went in to save others -- accepting refugees from war-torn areas, freeing concentration camps in World War II, the Berlin Airlift, the Civil Rights Act, prison reform, programs for the disabled and the elderly, women's suffrage, cleaning up the messes that other societies have made...

Of course for some, no matter how much the government does, it is not enough. I agree with Kate that we have now turned into a nation of fault-finders. That is unfortunate. There will never be perfect equality in all areas of life. That's not human nature, and we will never see Utopia.

Amen Laurie!