Kit Carson

Kit Carson was a true American hero. He was illiterate in the English language while being able to speak 12 Indian dialects. He sucked up to the authorities and made a career of murdering the people he admired and understood. He loved his wife and kids but was always on the road. He had two Indian brides of short duration and a prominent Taos Hispanic wife that bore him eight children, so apparently Kit made it home on occassion. Kit died suddenly at age 59. Colorado claims him but Taos, NM was his only home.

I'm sure Kit felt some discomfort about murdering Indians much like modern men have some misgivings about working for WalMart but with eight kids and an excitable Mexican wife he needed the job. Kit knew the lay of the land, how to survive in the great open spaces and how to act or react in unexpected situations. He lead legions of white men in the wilderness but never achieved any rank or status until the very end of his life. Kit was a working stiff with a panoramic office.

Kit is a hero because he survived the frontier, he did not conquer it but he took the conquerors by the hand and led them on their manifest destiny while keeping them safe. He fought using aboriginal skills like stealth, surprise and speed. Kit knew, "Always be the predator, never the prey." As a frontiersman he was his environment in perfect gestalt, a rough zen bum at one with his world. He could have just as easily helped the natives rid the land of the interlopers but as a white man he had knowledge of their numbers and the futility of resistance. I'm not trying to put smarts into Kit's head he was a walking phenom, a study in the natural being. The first existential hero, 100 years before, Satre or Camus, and an American one at that. As such, judge him by his choices and he always chose to survive. Guiding the white invaders, murdering his native friends, seeking out Judas dollars were all the acts of a hero. A natural man is as capable of martyrdom as a wolf is of altruism. Kit did save the navajo from annihilation only to have them endure the long walk. Twice he refused Gen. Calverts orders of massacre but once wiped out a village of Modocs because he was pissed.

But we are equiped with the golden rule and many of our choices are opposed the grander christian ethic. Our choices for wealth, comfort and satiation often make us guilty so we use hypocrisy to assuage the pain and burden of sin. False guise compounds the original weakness. It's best to be unabashed with your sinning like a banker or corporate CEO. Leave the hypocrisy to the politicians

Old Kit was guileless. He did what he done and died of an aneurysm a month after his wife's demise.