HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Mar. 21, 2007 Being half Cherokee, I've always had ambivalent feelings about Europeans and Euro-Americans. I'm also half Irish, so if I were to become a racist, I'd have to be schizophrenic about it. I do not identify with any American Indian group or participate in any kind of Amerindian activities. To my way of thinking, native American religion, though perhaps intriguing at first, is based largely on fantasy, just like Judaism, Islam or Christianity. So taking part in rites would be merely a sentimental gesture. Nor do I identify with Irishmen or Irish Americans or follow their religion, which is Catholicism, at least among my relatives, whom I haven't seen in decades, though I was baptized and confirmed as a Catholic. In other words, I'm just another unclassifiable citizen and must necessarily avoid claiming to be 'white' or 'red'. I do remember my mother, my aunts and uncles, and my maternal grandparents, who were all Cherokee, living in the Cherokee Nation, in northeastern Oklahoma. I visited the vicinity several times as a child. My mother was very proud of some fellow Cherokees, like Jim Thorpe, Will Rogers, Gene Autry and Patti Page, according to her. That doesn't mean much to me. I'm only concerned with what I accomplish. I don't take credit for what anybody else did. My mother came to Chicago at the age of 20 or so, and married my father, who was the son of working-class Irish immigrants. I could never sympathize with the ideals of some Aryan or White Supremacist movement. These are peopled largely by Americans of Northern European extraction whose forebears killed most of the comrades and relatives of some of my forebears. Could I celebrate their victory over women like my grandmother? Moreover, I've visited Germany, Scandinavia, Benelux, Switzerland and Austria. The people who live there are not my kind of people. They're mostly middle-class types, distant, rude and conceited. I feel much more at home among Mexicans, Indonesians, Thais and Egyptians. These are down-to-earth, friendly, cheerful fun-loving people. I know I'm wrong, to hear some people tell it, but that's the way I feel. Anyway, I'm a benevolent person. I wish hardly anyone any harm, except perhaps someone like a murderer or serial rapist, whom it would be just as well to eliminate by a lethal injection as to imprison in perpetuity. I've never harmed a person in my life. I've never harmed even an animal, except various insects. The last thing I want to do is inflict pain on anyone. These altruistic feelings do not prevent me from seeing and understanding what's going on in the world, however, and I take it as my right to express my opinion truthfully and honestly. The haters on this website, or elsewhere, may call me whatever they like. It will never deflect me from my gallant principles and standards. I don't know what makes people like Tom Pain tick. As far as I am concerned, living for hatred is stupid. This man, who appears to be psychopathic, practices what is known in psychoanalysis as 'projection', ascribing to others the same sentiments and attitudes that guide him. He seemingly hates everyone but himself, whom he adores, supposing that hatred and arrogance motivate everybody else too. This is tragic for him. My life is beautiful, and I'm delighted to be healthy and happy. Let's hope I have another 10 or 15 years before I die. But if I die tomorrow, so be it! ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
