The initial "expansion" of the country came in 1803 with our government's "Louisiana Purchase" from Napoleon's France. In reality the purchase provided the exclusive "preemptive" right" to obtain the indigenous peoples lands.
What followed after the war in 1812 the lands of the indigenous peoples were depicted in the innocent sounding "Manifest Destiny" the "natural" expansion of the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific. A lie we were taught in our schools.
Along with manifest destiny our government initiated the Mexican-American War 1846-48. As the victor we got the spoils Usurping from Mexico what is now Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and part of Colorado.
So there's hypocrisy celebrated in the lyrics of "America the Beautiful" from "sea to shining sea". In fact an invention to camouflage and deflect from the reality of stealing the indigenous peoples lands.
Combine this with the slavery of black peoples from Africa on whose backs the country was built, our government hides our true legacy of genocide and theft cloaked as it is behind the "Pledge of Allegiance", the "Star Spangled Banner" national anthem, America the Beautiful", innocent sounding Manifest Destiny and all the "land of the free and home of the brave" hyperbole we've all been exposed to since we were so high.
We Americans have been so indoctrinated with the symbols of our supposed "goodness" many (most?) won't allow themselves to experience the cognitive dissonance that could/would likely result if they took an honest look into our real history, not the fabricated one we were indoctrinated with.
Lastly, another picture seen this morning was taken in Bristol, England where a monument of slave trader Edward Colston was torn down by protesters. A nearby sign read, "You f--ked with the Wrong Generation".
Maybe an ominous sign of what's to come in the aftermath of the ongoing worldwide protests over the police killing of George Floyd some 2 1/2 weeks ago in Minneapolis.
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