Jackson

I had a little exchange which I did not persue with a very liberal acquaintance of mine. I said something about "Jackson" on the $20 bill I was paying him with.

He said something about how he was an Indian killer and used to eat the hearts of Indians he killed. (Ok, "native Americans" .... what. ever.)

Now I admit, I don't know much about Jackson and I won't argue from a position of ignorance. As a matter of fact when it comes to these things, I don't tend to argue even when I know better just out of politeness. He went on to say that it was hard to believe that a man as prejudiced and hateful as that could be president. I said "well, those were different times" and tried to leave it at that. (I don't think we should necessarily judge people in history by today's standards... we need to take into account the standards of the day -- and take wild-sounding assertations with a grain of salt.)

The next thing he said took me a little aback for a minute and I had to remind myself that he is infected with Bush Derangement Syndrome. He can't help himself.

He said that our current president was just as prejudiced but he relied on others to do his dirty work for him.

Wherever I have disagreed with the man, I have no doubt that George Bush is anything but prejudiced. (It could be argued he has had the most diverse cabinet in the history of the Presidency). I think he is a decent man with a difficult job in difficult times. We have differing opinions at times on what should be done and how, but as a human being I have no problems with George Bush. But these people really believe these things about him.

So I looked up Andrew Jackson and at first glance I can't find anything about him eating the hearts of indians -- although I have no doubts he fought against them and killed many.

But I did find out one interesting bit of trivia. Andrew Jackson was one of the founding members of the modern Democratic party.