I have two copies of this book. Once upon a time, my mom got in a frenzy about it being out of print (because it was) and put herself on the Sam Weller waiting list for any copy. She bought four, and I inherited two because The Fourth of July has always been my favorite holiday and I have always been fascinated with the likes of Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and the founding of America. Now, that frenzy seems a little silly, because Amazon has reprinted copes and even old printings with the fancy pictures. But Amazon didn't exist at the time we were both going through our Research-America-Phase in the early 2000s (PS: My mom's phase passed. Mine didn't).
Anyway, I'm making grilled cheese, thinking about this upcoming weekend, and I have this thought, I should probably pull that book out and skim it. To be honest, I've tried to read this book every July since 2001. And I have never gotten past the first section. And this is not a big book, people. It just gets kind of boring after that first really interesting section.
But, when your random thoughts tell you to do something easy, you should probably do it. This time, instead of reading from the beginning, I started flipping to the back until I landed at this paragraph on page 128:
“This prophecy states that the Indian would first be afflicted. What was the nature of that affliction? Before the white man came to this continent, North America was almost totally free from infectious disease. There was no smallpox, no measles, no mumps, no choler, no diphtheria or tuberculosis. It was only after the white man came that the Indian contracted these diseases. Smallpox was the most deadly of these afflictions. More Indians succumbed to smallpox than fell casualty in all their wars with the United States. The Cheyennes lost half their tribe from smallpox. The Mandans were almost exterminated. The Cress, it is said, lost several thousand. A quarter of the Pawnees were killed by the epidemic, and estimates of deaths among the Blackfoot run as high as eight thousand.”
Okay. So what? Why would I randomly be prompted to find this passage when I could be enjoying grilled cheese and red, white, and blue Oreos (because they have those! Yum!) Patience, Grasshopper. Do your English Teacher thing.
Okay. So, my first English Teacher instinct is to find the antecedent for that pesky pronoun. “This prophecy…” What prophecy? I had to back up a bit, and I found that Pres. Benson had quoted a prophecy, “I have caused my people who are of the house of Israel to be smitten, and to be afflicted, and to be slain, and to be cast out from among [the Gentiles], and to become hated by them, and to be a hiss and byword among them” (emphasis added).
Ouch. That’s quite the prophecy. Who made that one? Turns out, Jesus did. In 3 Nephi 16:9, when Christ visited the Lamanites, he prophesied about their destruction.
Again, so what? Well, history repeats itself. Once a righteous, chosen people were led out of a wicked land to a new land--one that was to be a land of liberty. Then, because of wickedness, the people became afflicted and then destroyed.
Ah. I was beginning to see some things that had been percolating in my mind recently, what with all the 2020 crappiness and then reading the Book of Mormon with my family every night. Thoughts were starting to congeal. But not completely.
Continuing with (then) President of the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Benson;
“Later, thousands of Indians died of respiratory diseases brought by low resistance to white man’s diseases. This was the period when pneumonia and tuberculosis took such a toll that the Indians were called the ‘vanishing Americans’”
Um… respiratory diseases, you say? *cue Twilight Zone music*
President Benson goes on to remind the reader that after the Indians were afflicted with disease, the prophecy of them being "slain" continues to be fulfilled. I think we all know about the Cowboys and the Indians mythos. Pres. Benson states that “between 1800 and 1860, it is estimated the Indian population decreased from one million to 44,000.”
The last part of the prophecy is that the Indians would be “cast out from among” the Gentiles. And wouldn't you know it. Anybody visited a Rez lately? No? Me neither.
Wow. Sometimes it’s hard to point out prophecies and their direct fulfillment, but this one is quite easy.
So. My first reaction when I read this was: Oops. We did it again.
Then, again, the question: So what? So, this is why. This is how. And you know what matters.
I have been reading A LOT of news and A LOT of books and listening to A LOT of speeches and interviews and...everything. I think I've been looking for the answer to the question that I am seeing in the eyes peeking above every mask I meet.
I think this moment was an answer to a prayer I didn't know I was praying: WHY?
This is Why. This is How.
A blessed people, a chosen people, a people who are guided to this land by God’s hand (I mean Columbus, Pilgrims, etc) were covenanted with God that, if they were righteous and continually repented, a church would be established on the land (3 Nephi 21:22), and they would be blessed, just like the people of Nephi and Lehi. They would be blessed and become very prosperous (In case you haven’t noticed, we are the most free, the most wealthy nation in the world). And, pride, just like a great Nephite and Lamanite Nation before us, is our fall.
We are watching, simultaneously, the affliction of disease, the killing of the citizenry, and eventually, I think, the ideals of liberty, freedom, and righteousness will be cast out. We are watching the fall of a prideful people, and we are falling in the same way that the people of this land did, not too long past.
So what do we do? I got that answer, too. You know what matters.
I know, could you BE any more cryptic? Here's what I think that means. I don’t know that there’s anything to do other than what the apostles and prophets have told us: teach the gospel in your home. Have a relationship with your Savior. Hear him.
President Benson goes on to remind the reader that after the Indians were afflicted with disease, the prophecy of them being "slain" continues to be fulfilled. I think we all know about the Cowboys and the Indians mythos. Pres. Benson states that “between 1800 and 1860, it is estimated the Indian population decreased from one million to 44,000.”
The last part of the prophecy is that the Indians would be “cast out from among” the Gentiles. And wouldn't you know it. Anybody visited a Rez lately? No? Me neither.
Wow. Sometimes it’s hard to point out prophecies and their direct fulfillment, but this one is quite easy.
So. My first reaction when I read this was: Oops. We did it again.
Then, again, the question: So what? So, this is why. This is how. And you know what matters.
I have been reading A LOT of news and A LOT of books and listening to A LOT of speeches and interviews and...everything. I think I've been looking for the answer to the question that I am seeing in the eyes peeking above every mask I meet.
I think this moment was an answer to a prayer I didn't know I was praying: WHY?
This is Why. This is How.
A blessed people, a chosen people, a people who are guided to this land by God’s hand (I mean Columbus, Pilgrims, etc) were covenanted with God that, if they were righteous and continually repented, a church would be established on the land (3 Nephi 21:22), and they would be blessed, just like the people of Nephi and Lehi. They would be blessed and become very prosperous (In case you haven’t noticed, we are the most free, the most wealthy nation in the world). And, pride, just like a great Nephite and Lamanite Nation before us, is our fall.
We are watching, simultaneously, the affliction of disease, the killing of the citizenry, and eventually, I think, the ideals of liberty, freedom, and righteousness will be cast out. We are watching the fall of a prideful people, and we are falling in the same way that the people of this land did, not too long past.
So what do we do? I got that answer, too. You know what matters.
I know, could you BE any more cryptic? Here's what I think that means. I don’t know that there’s anything to do other than what the apostles and prophets have told us: teach the gospel in your home. Have a relationship with your Savior. Hear him.
When I am on Twitter too much, I start to lose it, so I start praying about what to do or what to believe, this is the thought that keeps scrolling on the endless ticker-tape of my mind: the only thing that matters is what you know about yourself and what God knows about you. This is what I've been hearing lately.
And what God knows about me, and I'm pretty sure he knows it about you, too, is that I'm trying, dammit. I'm trying to be a good person and a good mom and a good wife and to be nice to myself. And I am always a failure at reaching those goals, but I'm trying, and I have to trust that, in the end, I will get there. And it will be enough. I know what I believe. I know that HE knows what I believe. And that's all that matters.
