Reading the "News" thread, several thoughts and questions formed in my head, and I'm going to post them here. But first a few "disclaimers".

Firstly, I'm not a very politically interested person. My mind gets pretty quickly confused and bored with such issues. So I might have overlooked obvious aspects, and I might even be bringing up issues that have been thoroughly discussed before without me noticing.

Secondly, this question arises by pure curiosity. I want to learn, and maybe get better in the areas just mentioned. I want to know how you see things.

Thirdly, I know that no one to whom this question applies are themselves responsible for being in that position, so this is not about the individual people, but rather the history and people as a whole.

On to what's on my mind.

I live in, and come from, Norway. As far as I know, my genealogy tree has its roots solidly planted in Norway. When we won our freedom from Danish rule in 1814, we "got our country back". I'm not very patriotic myself and I see many bad traits in Norwegian people. (That's not to say I don't love my country -- the nature is great and the cultural history is exciting.)

We're often too fond of and think too much of ourselves. We got a lot of medals in Salt Lake, and I sometimes get really sick, bordering on nauseous, of the media's (and, for that matter, most other Norwegians') handling of it. But even though we can be incredibly stupid and intolerant and self-righteous and whining, I feel that the freedom we have in our little, long-stretched country is just, and I would not be very happy if someone else came and threw us out or suppressed us. We are the ones who came here back when the ice cap started to melt, so this is where we belong.

When I compare this to America, something doesn't quite add up.

There's no question that way back, when Europeans first discovered this new country, horrible things were done to the native Americans who were already there and had been for a very long time. They were killed, driven out or suppressed. No, they weren't very forgiving themselves either, but at least they defended their own home country. Europeans took something that didn't belong to them in the first place, settled down and became Americans.

Now, America is "the land of the free, the home of the brave". Freedom for all. Equal opportunities. Anyone can "make it".

How does this apply to native Americans? Are those expressions true for them, too?

Hm... I'm trying to find a way to express what's fluttering about in my head. It's not easy, especially when you don't want to sound condemning or start a flame war...

How do Americans deal with the fact that their country and way of life is a result of driving out the ones who originally lived there?

I think what I find difficult is that I hear Americans claiming their freedom and country to be rightfully theirs, when it's a historical fact that all that was once taken from the natives.

I'd like to hear some Americans' thoughts on this.