Reply #46: I welcome this opportunity...

[JackRiddler]

to finally have a reason to praise rather than argue with you, Padraig18. We are in complete agreement here and this is a very good and moving text.

As it happens in 7th grade I wrote the first term paper of my life on the "Trail of Tears" and it started my politicization.

It's hard to think of a more vicious, backstabbing or heartless crime. The Cherokee had taken up Jefferson's call to till the fields and live like the white man. They had surrendered to the reality of Anglo power and U.S. rule and built towns, opened shops, acted as merchants and farmers, adopted writing, published newspapers, elected mayors. But none of this mattered - their remaining land in GA had become valuable enough to steal. This was racist plunder, pure and simple.