Thomas Jefferson And Geronimo

Pete Butteredge, or whatever is his name is, is one of 17,404 Democrats running for president. He's also not a big fan of Thomas Jefferson because Jefferson owned slaves.

Geronimo, an Apache warleader, was a crazed racist bent on killing as many Mexicans as he possibly could.

Geronimo had no concept of morality outside of his own. It was perfectly honorable to raid and steal and murder as long as it was done the right way. He had no problem wiping out whole farmsteads if they resisted when he and his goons showed up to rob the place. When it happened to him under different circumstances, he was aghast and complained of treachery.

I seriously doubt that Geronimo was that far removed from the intellectual and cultural mainstream of Apache thought. I wonder if Pete Butteredge feels we need to carefully inspect any and all honors we grant to Apaches and other Indian tribes. After all, if we're going to be morally pure, we need to be completely pure.

The Aztecs are similarly problematic. Hopefully Pete will be questioned about this soon.