April 26th

On this day in 1607, English invaders from three ships landed in the Powhatan Nation on what is now known as Cape Henry. They worked their way upriver and several weeks later broke ground for a town they named Jamestown in honor of the English king. A few years later, these intruders, feeling blessed for stealing land from the indigenous inhabitants, brought stolen people over from Africa and forced them to provide free labor to build their colony and work the farms to provide with food. Today, some of their descendants look back at those “good old days” and say things like “We want OUR country back”, the country they feel that they have worked so hard to build. This is the attitude I see among many of the privileged class, who feel “entitled” due to the hard work of their ancestors, hard work like genocide and slavery… Even some of the more enlightened acknowledge the dark past, but are not feeling any need to correct the situation. It’s like they are telling you “I realize that I am rich and you are poor because my grandfather stole your grandfather’s wallet. I do apologize for that, but I’m keeping the money and will continue to delude myself that you are poor because you are lazy.”