Jim, consider this slightly modified point of view. And don't get mad at me.

I'm certain the peasant class of England suffered every bit as much as anyone affected by Great Britain's rise to imperial power worldwide. The sun never sets... That's why I keep bringing it up. I have said before and I will again that it's easier to accept mistreatment from a foreign entity than it is your own. The English peasants were driven from what had been common lands and herded into factories and used as slave labor. It was Tyburn for those who had other ideas. For centuries, the laws protecting property were prioritized over laws protecting persons (except persons of the upper class) but I'm sure you know all that.

The problem with memorials of genocide is that the cruelty and extermination is seldom confined to an exclusive target group and we miss the point by making it primarily an ethnic or political thing. For example, Jews may have been Hitler's most despised target but there were lesser targeted groups who suffered and died just as tragically. Still, you see many Jews who protect that most targeted status to the point where they don't really recognize the suffering of these other groups, especially if it is a group they can identify with the ethnicity or political status of the perpetrator.

I have seen the same thing with Ukrainians who don't recognize what the Soviets inflicted on ethnic Russians on Russian soil. And of course we see it with the Irish who feel especially targeted but who in the great scheme of things were probably not more so than other groups, South Africans for example. In most cases this special targeted status carries ethnocentric and nationalistic overtones which are not the highest purpose for remembering victims and what they endured. It is something rather that should speak to our humanity - individual and collective- without such pronounced political and
ethnic divisions.

And Cheers to Keith and his new bride! Mnohaya Lita! Many Years!

There are several versions of this song on youtube but this my favorite one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jo-FfSflLo