In loving, living memory, John Melançon 1928 – 2007
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first peoples
Genocide by Public Policy: First Peoples and the European Invasion
Fri, 2008/02/01 - 7:14pm — Benjamin MelançonHere are my thoughts after talking to a friend upset by a professor who said ignorant things about the people of this hemisphere. He used the fact that most of the massive indigenous death in the Americas came from diseases, not guns, to dismiss the moral import of the centuries-long genocidal invasion of these continents by Europeans.
We need to make an exceedingly well backed up case to convince anyone of anything, or to build knowledge we can use to build a better world.
I think the argument must be, essentially, that what happened was genocide by public policy.
Native Humor
Fri, 2007/08/31 - 9:48pm — Benjamin MelançonDad said there were Indians he was with out West – and I'm totally blanking on where, but I want to say Washington State – who were the funniest people he ever knew.
He also said they asked if he was an Indian, because he sure was dark enough and there was a tribe with blue eyes somewhere around.
They would parody, well, white culture so well it left my Dad in stitches:
Good advice
Fri, 2007/07/20 - 7:34am — Benjamin MelançonI don't remember if Dad initiated the outing, or if he came along, but one of the shows he went to with the family was a trio doing Allen Sherman songs.
(Dad I think was less likely to go to plays and shows, though one thing he made a point to do was take all of us sons at various times to both the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Pops.)
The group did amazing work with a piano where Allen Sherman had a small orchestra backing him up.
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