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Britain raped India. And China. And Africa. And theMiddle East. And and and. Great, Britain!Great work!

Work of great energy, bravery, and determination,yes! And also work of great arrogance, greatselfishness, great spiritual blindness, and greatsmall-mindedness. Consider all of the brutalization,suffering, and dehumanization brought to humanityby that cruel work!

And the work, no doubt, of many of my ancestors.

Sir Richard Grenville, (1542-1591), renowned Englishsea captain, was the first cousin once removed of a

direct ancestor of mine, George Grenville (who died in

1580). Sir Richard Grenvilles grandfather, also named

Richard Grenville, was the brother of Georges father,Digory Grenville (d.1539). Sir Richard Grenvilles

great-grandfather, Sir Roger Grenville (1477-1523),

was my great-great-great-great-great-great-great- great-

great-great-great-great grandfather (12 greats). Sir

Roger Grenvilles father was Sir Thomas Grenville

(1450-1513), who among other things was a closeassistant to King Henry VII. Sir Thomas Grenville was

descended from yet another Sir Richard Grenville, who

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was a brother of Robert Fitzhamon and one of the

Twelve Knights of Glamorgan.

Sir Richard Grenville (1542-1591) had sought to leadan expedition that would have made the first British

voyage around the world (second in all--after

Magellan), but that honor was given toSirFrancis

Drake. He and Drake were both privateers -- pirates,

sanctioned by the British government to prey on others

(the Spanish, who were returning to Europe with vastfortunes of gold and silver stolen from South America).

Sir Richard Grenville (1542-1591), also cousin to Sir

Walter Raleigh and Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir

Francis Drake, was the Admiral and the General, and a

ships captain, of the second British expedition to the

site of what would shortly later become the first Britishattempt to establish a colony in the Americas. This

attempt, which was on the Outer Banks of what is

today North Carolina, failed, and is known to history as

the Lost Colony. Apparently, Sir Richard Grenville

himself strongly contributed to the development of the

very bad relations between the English would-becolonists and the local Indians, which somewhat later

contributed to the failure (and disappearance) of this

proto-colony.

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Sir Richard Grenville is just one of my ancestors who

were covered in imperialisms blood. There werenumerous others, some of whom are mentioned above.

The great bloody work--the work of creating an

empire--springs almost straight from the

selfishness that is intrinsic to human life--to

biological life.Note that I wrote springs almost straight.

We would much better steer our course even moretrue--not to create an empire, in law or fact, or anysuch bloody selfish thing, but to create integrity, inthe midst of this chaos!

That would be worthy work! That work wouldleave a worthwhile legacy. Having done that work,we would have cause to feel good. Having done thatwork, we would have done Gods work.