Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee trailer

This looks like a fantastic film. I read the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown, when I was a senior in high school, and I remember the book as tremendously powerful and moving. I'm hoping that HBO's adaptation of the book lives up to Brown's excellent narrative, and by the looks of the trailer, it does (but I know how misleading trailers can be). Generally, HBO films puts out very good movies, and this one will probably join the network's long list of excellent films.

I'm not at all shy in admitting that my country's treatment of Native Americans is another painful, sad chapter in the history of America's treatment of entire races. Along with slavery, the wholesale slaughter of Native Americans is among the most pathetic, disgusting and despicable chapters in our nation's history.

This promises to be a very thought-provoking film; it already has me thinking. From African Americans to Native Americans, and also the detainment of Asian Americans during World War II, Vietnamese "body counts" during the Vietnam War and now the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in the Middle East, our country has a very long and unfortunate history of killing people who aren't aligned with our world view.

America certainly has done some tremendously courageous things, too, like fighting World War I, World War II and defending South Korea when it was attacked by the north, as well as intervening in Kosovo and Somalia to try to stop the slaughter of innocent people.

What I'm trying to say is that America, in my humble opinion, has a mixed legacy that's far from perfect, as evidenced by what's going on in the Middle East today (not to mention Guantanamo Bay, Cuba).

I love my country, but that doesn't mean I love everything about it.

Wounded Knee promises to bring up as many questions as it answers, and that's not a bad thing.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee premieres this Sunday, May 27, on HBO.