Trails of Tears, again

This article reminds us that the "Trail of Tears" isn't an isolated, 19th-century event.

Times change, but people stay the same.

One thing that's changed is the PR. Now, the fashion's to tell the relocatees that they're going to a better, more exciting home. P.J. O'Rourke wrote a piece in Rolling Stone, "Deep in the Heart of Siberia," about a train trip across Russia. On the way, he passes through Birobidzhan, where Stalin coaxed Jews from all over the world, telling them that this was their new, promised land. O'Rourke notes that the ones left are "The Frozen Chosen." (For the military-ignorant, he's making an allusion to this.)

In an earlier day, the approach was more direct.