I visited Billy the Kid’s grave last spring, while on a road trip. It is within a hundred yards of Bosque Redondo, where Navajo and Apache people were held captive after the Long Walk. It was pointed out to me, with some bitterness, that the “21 men” Billy the Kid killed were white men. No one even counted “Indians,” which he apparently …
I visited Billy the Kid’s grave last spring, while on a road trip. It is within a hundred yards of Bosque Redondo, where Navajo and Apache people were held captive after the Long Walk. It was pointed out to me, with some bitterness, that the “21 men” Billy the Kid killed were white men. No one even counted “Indians,” which he apparently picked off for entertainment. They weren’t considered people.
His grave is enclosed by a high fence. I couldn’t quite spit on it. But I thought of the story I heard at Bosque Redondo, where the Apache people escaped en masse one night, leaving a dozen or so frail elderly people to tend their fires so that the white soldiers wouldn’t notice until morning. I can’t imagine what happened to those elders when the jig was up.
Those old Apache people are more worthy of the title hero than one William Bonney.
As for this guy, I think he’s no hero— but I’m curious to find out what it was he thought he was doing.
I’m afraid that along with a post-truth world, we are entering a post-moral world, where killing someone is okay if you think you’re doing the right thing.
I visited Billy the Kid’s grave last spring, while on a road trip. It is within a hundred yards of Bosque Redondo, where Navajo and Apache people were held captive after the Long Walk. It was pointed out to me, with some bitterness, that the “21 men” Billy the Kid killed were white men. No one even counted “Indians,” which he apparently picked off for entertainment. They weren’t considered people.
His grave is enclosed by a high fence. I couldn’t quite spit on it. But I thought of the story I heard at Bosque Redondo, where the Apache people escaped en masse one night, leaving a dozen or so frail elderly people to tend their fires so that the white soldiers wouldn’t notice until morning. I can’t imagine what happened to those elders when the jig was up.
Those old Apache people are more worthy of the title hero than one William Bonney.
As for this guy, I think he’s no hero— but I’m curious to find out what it was he thought he was doing.
I’m afraid that along with a post-truth world, we are entering a post-moral world, where killing someone is okay if you think you’re doing the right thing.