Yesterday, as I arrived at the hospital, I overheard part of a conversation between two departing visitors.
“Well, you know all of the land along Route 413 was stolen from the Indians. Including the land for this hospital!” Her tone of voice was filled with disgust that people would live their lives on stolen land. How dare they!
Um, this is Bucks County. In Pennsylvania. The county is filled with names like Neshaminy and Nockamixon. There are documented Lenni Lenape tribe sites in the county parks.
Of course the land was stolen. How else would someone have gotten the land in the first place?
If you want to be technical, the whole county is stolen land. All of it. And really the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is stolen land.
And then I started thinking about wars and how no one ever went to war because their neighboring country or group was just giving their land away. At some point in time, every piece of land has been stolen from someone else. It just might not be in our collective memory.
I kept giggling to myself as I walked into the hospital. I’ll take the bright spot in a day wherever I can find it.
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