But America is different. America is violent. America was founded upon violence, it is addicted to violence, it sanctifies the capacity for violence. The twin original sins of America — indigenous genocide and African slavery — have still not been fully owned and confessed. (Government genocide against Native Americans is virtually never mentioned — mostly because the genocide was so effective.) We keep hoping that someday we can just forget about this sordid past. But we cannot. We cannot because it is still present.