[Buddha-l] Re: Utah for a Jewish homeland [was: buddha-l Digest, Vol 32, Issue 17]

[Richard Hayes]

On Sat, 2007-10-20 at 10:55 +0200, Joy Vriens wrote:

> While you're at it, could you also give back Louisiana to the French?

This is a bit touchy. At the moment I am only giving territory back to
people from whom it was taken by unwarranted acts of aggression. That's
why I had to give Israel back to the Canaanites in the first place,
thereby requiring a resettlement of almost the entire earth's
population. It's hard work figuring out where everyone belongs, but
someone has to do it. It was with regret, for example, that I had to
send the Navajos and Apaches back to Canada; their coming down here
uninvited in the 17th century has been rubbing the native peoples the
wrong way. I'm working out where to send the Aztecs.

Louisiana is another matter. It was a real estate deal. If Louisiana
were returned to Louis Roi, Alaska would have to be returned to the
Russians (if they kept the receipt).

Speaking of Alaska, its purchase for $7,200,000 was negotiated by
William Seward, who had been Abraham Lincoln's secretary of state (or
Secretary of State as the Germans spell it). By the time Alaska was
purchased, of course, Andrew Johnson was president, but Seward was still
sec'y of state. As everyone who has read Thomas Tweed's books, America's
Encounter With Buddhism, Seward was the first self-proclaimed Buddhist
to serve in a US president's cabinet. When I was in New Amsterdam (which
the residents now call New York, for some reason) last weekend, I saw a
statue of William Seward in a public park (I think it was Madison Square
Park). He didn't look like a Buddhist at all. This makes me think Tweed
may have been lying.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico