As we on the left are beguiled by the power and energy of the OWS movement et al, we must not forget that there is an alternate reality inhabited by much of the nation with a whole different narrative.
“Rather than permit America to consider any responsibility for the gross immoralities of our foreign aggression, the GOP’s demand for reparations plays to our exceptionalist conceit by implicitly suggesting that — facts be damned! — the war was Good and Just. And not just moderately good and just, but so Good and Just that we deserve to be paid for our trouble. Along the way, this self-righteous posture implies that we shouldn’t change anything about the (highly profitable) Military-Industrial Complex that led us into the war in the first place.”
via The GOP’s victim-blaming strategy – Republican Party – Salon.com.
Alliance for a Progressive Virginia 
“Alcatraz was a big enough symbol that for the first time this century Indians were taken seriously,” says Vine Deloria Jr., a University of Colorado-Boulder law professor, philosopher, author and historian.