Who Sings the Unforgiving Wilderness?
On the fifth anniversary of war in Iraq, I have been looking back to the 19th century. And back to New Hampshire and over two long months ago, when Senator Barack Obama gave his “Yes We Can” speech that has since sparked its own pop cultural movement reflected in will.i.am’s video. Embedded within that speech are the foundational U.S. nationalist seeds that culminated in a Manifest Destiny and an imperial colonialism that are at the root of the U.S. continued domination of Iraq. Particularly when one considers that it was the 7th Calvary–once led by Custer and responsible for Wounded Knee–who rolled into the streets of Bagdad on April 5, 2003.
Senator Obama said in January:
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation: Yes, we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights: Yes, we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness: Yes, we can.
The “unforgiving wilderness” here functions as metonymy for American Indians against whom those pioneers pushed. As the pioneers, immigrants, slaves and abolitionists progressed towards a more perfect union, the light of civilization sought to drive American Indian nations to the margins and then out of the picture altogether. A month later in Madison, Senator Obama repeated the refrain,
That’s how this country was founded, a group of patriots declaring independence against the mighty British empire. Nobody gave them a chance, but they said, “Yes, we can.”
That’s how slaves and abolitionists resisted that wicked system and how a new president chartered a course to ensure we would not remain half-slave and half-free…
…That’s how pioneers went west when people told them it was dangerous. They said, “Yes, we can.”
That’s how immigrants traveled from distant shores when people said their fates would be uncertain. Yes, we can.
And exactly what were the dangers of the West? In a telling elision, the struggles of slaves and abolitionists are linked with the pioneers who were in the process of “taming the wilderness” through theft and often outright murder. And despite indigenous peoples’ constant refrain of “No, you can’t.”
Who, then, sings the unforgiving wilderness?
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