New Navy Ship's Name Draws Fire

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The U.S. Navy has a new ship, and a lot of people aren't happy. Not with the boat, but with the name. The new ship, a littoral combat ship (LCS), was named after U.S. president Andrew Jackson (LCS-6). One might wonder why people would object to a ship being named after Jackson. He was a U.S. president and a war hero in the Battle of New Orleans. He's currently on the $20 bill. The reason is pretty simple, if you look into U.S. history: Andrew Jackson was a jerk. When he became president he signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Granted, he couldn't have done this alone -- Congress helped pass the law. However, Jackson could have vetoed it. When it came time to remove the Cherokee from their land they fought back -- legally. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Cherokee's favor. President Jackson, however, said the Supreme Court couldn't put any muscle behind their ruling, so he continued with the relocation of the American Indians despite the ruling. (See? Terrible politicians really aren't all that new.) Under Jackson's dictatorship..er...rule, the Cherokee were forced west in what is infamously known as the "Trail of Tears." Jackson's hand in the relocation of several American Indian nations, including the Cherokee, resulted in somewhere between 2,000 and 6,000 deaths as the American Indians were displaced. The Cherokee, in particular, suffered terribly because they were sent on their "march" west in the dead of winter. Jackson was also a slave owner; however, that pales in comparison to the way he figuratively flipped a bird to the Supreme Court and marched thousands of American Indians to their deaths in order to give their land to Caucasian settlers. As someone with Cherokee heritage (my dad's grandmother), I couldn't agree more: this slime deserves to have his name become a curse, much like Hitler's, because what he did isn't unlike what Hitler did. Jackson's motives were merely different, but still reprehensible.