Perhaps boring post for many

I was listening to Fresh Air today on the way to work. I have to admit, I have gone from being a Terri Gross hater to somewhat of an admirer. I think in general I am more forgiving of interviewers now that I've had to do more, especially after transcribing my last one with Michael Pollan and hearing my idiotic laugh over and over again. I'd hate to think that, if I ever have a radio show, some unforgiving little piggy out there thinks, "Bitch please, you don't know shit about East Coast rap, and your laugh is hella stupid."



Not that I've thought those things about Terri.

So this morning I listened to her interview Daniel Mendelsohn, whose new book The Lost: a Search for Six of Six Million tells the story of his search to find relatives from his ancestors' hometown. The two most striking statements he made were that

1) Europe is a gigantic cemetary to him; and
2) The entire continent's population is severely skewed given the extermination of Jews in WWII.

I guess it's the future projecting that interests me the most--the idea that countries should look different, and would so, if this intense hatred for a population hadn't culminated in their mass killing.

The first time I've been in Europe was when I went to Norway a few months ago. My brother and I were driving up this intensely windy and remote mountain dirt road to go pick blueberries, and he pointed and said, "There's a Nazi barrack."

And there it was--hunkered into a hillside, mossy and forgotten and seemingly benign and creepy as hell. And it made me realize that yes, there were soldiers all over everywhere in Europe. That no matter how remote you got (and this area of Norway is in the middle or Nor-where, seriously), there was still a chance of discovery, that nowhere in Europe was safe. Sometimes when I've watched movies set in WWII I have made little plans about how I would hide myself away in a tree trunk and survive. But that is probably not very likely a situation. By the way everyone should go out and watch these two films:




Which leads me also to think about the hush-hush-hush of the American Holocaust--the intensive, centuries-long destruction of the Native population here, what is known as The 500 Years War. What would this continent look like if there had not been the systematic relocation, starving, poisoning, and killing of the indigenous population? How much browner would this country be? And that's not even beginning to account for the silent genocide--the taking away of Native people's language, land, customs, stories, traditions, pride....yuck. Why doesn't anyone talk about this?


Is it because we, as Americans, are so much better at judging than we are at being judged. With WWII, "they" did it. "We" came to the rescue (for unpure reasons at a very late hour. With the Native population, "we" did it. "We" continue to do it. "We" suck.



Pictures are from the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz Island, which marked the beginning of the American Indian Movement, by most accounts.