History - Fact Or Fiction?

We've all heard of revisionist history; we all know that Iran's President Ahmedinejad denies the Holocaust ever happened. We know that people without sufficient background for the task are often asked to approve or disapprove books our children have access to in schools. One off none of this may seem important but, you know, I believe it is.

When people with agendas begin meddling in what can and cannot be taught, history gets skewed. What do we know of it unless we've actually lived it? Hearsay. It goes back as far as the written word. The Bible in all it's incarnations. Parables confused with fact. Or not so confused if one has an agenda other than teaching or learning.

The disturbing thing is how manipulation is being used to this day. A controversy is ongoing in Texas right now regarding what should and should not be included in their social studies curriculum. When I think about it I couldn't begin to tell you what my 11 and 13 year old nieces believe to be history. I would be willing to wager it's not quite the same as what I was taught.

Here are a few of the recommendations from Texas as reported on the texasinsider.org site.

1st grade: In the section on holidays it removes Veterans' Day and Independence Day. The 4th of July? On customs it removes the anthems and motto's of Texas and the U.S. and from patriotic symbols it removes the Liberty Bell.

3rd grade: Removes a children's biography of Stephen F. Austin.

High school: Removes John Locke's Two Treatises of Government and English common law and changes the phrase "Free enterprise system" to "capitalist system".

Presidents Roosevelt and Eisenhower were referred to as "dead white guys" in discussions on phasing them out and not adding any more.

Needless to say there has been tremendous push back on these recommendations. Thank heavens. But I can see where such could pass virtually unnoticed in the not too distant future. What with the blurring of reality in movie embodiments of history, writers, actors, producers lending their own slant and photo shop altering any and everything, perhaps one day we will have no history at all. Existence will be nothing more than an epic work of fiction. Reality will be but for a fleeting moment.

So. As Bob Schrum said about Obama today in a conversation with Andrea Mitchell, he needs to stand before us and tell us just who he is. Why? It will all be altered anyway. There will be no truth.

Will the real Davy Crockett please stand up? Did he even exist?

Whistling Past The Graveyard

What else is the administration to do? Let's see now. Ben Bernanke's once sound renomination to head the Fed is on shaky ground. Treasury Secretary Geitner's enabling activity with AIG when he was head of the New York Fed is coming to light. Beau Biden is not going to run for Senate seat his father had held. Health care is all but dead in its present form. The Democrats are deserting the sinking ship of state in uncomfortable numbers. They've just lost a crucial Senate seat in a state so blue it's almost black!

Yet...yet. The assessment coming out of the Sunday talk shows was pure defiance. Even while the surrogates were making the rounds, they couldn't even come up with the same, or even similar, numbers when talking about jobs saved or created by the stimulus yet they charged ahead. This is fascinating to watch. To hear it said they haven't talked to us enough to make us understand was laughable. All they've done is talk!

What they didn't count on is the fact we listened. I don't think they understand the concept. You talk, we listen. That's pretty elementary. The next step apparently isn't. We don't like what we hear, we tell you!

Nothing at the moment is looking rosy. Lieberman and Snowe now want Gitmo kept open. We have 18,000 Marines now in Haiti. That's half the number needed for the surge in Afghanistan. Where is the difference going to be made up? Or are we going to let those still in Afghanistan hang out to dry?

Foreign countries and aid groups are criticizing how we're handling the relief effort. Well, let them step up to the plate! They won't fight with us so let them do the heavy lifting in Haiti.

Times are really tough because everything is interconnected. Just like with our intelligence community, the dots have to be connected yet there are huge gaps.

Nope. No one in the administration is whistling a happy tune at the moment. I just hope this verse from The King and I is an unintentional anthem!

The result of this deception

Is very strange to tell

For when I fool the people

I fear I fool myself as well!

Plural Progress

I don't get sick often, but whatever I have now has really knocked the pegs out from under me. Hub knew I was in trouble when he came home from running errands last Tuesday to find me sound asleep on the couch instead of on my computer. It went downhill from there to two solid days in bed. I never knew I could sleep so soundly for so long.

It would seem to be not quite the flu, not quite a bad cold and not quite whooping cough which is making the rounds locally, but rather a sampler. I'm upright today and even have clothes on. If it weren't for football I'd probably head back to bed, though I am slept out. Also wiped out. So. We'll see how it goes.

One thing, I've listened to a lot of news. When I feel too sick to make my way to the computer to comment on the events of the week just past, trust me, I'm sick.

Of many stand out subjects, one thing struck me as extremely important. I think Americans, as a whole, are coming of age. No longer are we a complacent bunch content to let those in Washington have their way with us. We elected Obama because we were tired of it. We've also sent him a message. Don't fall into the same pattern of patronizing and/or bullying us or we'll turn you and yours out too.

I listen with interest while the few hard core ideologues stick to the same mode of bullying even as their world is collapsing around them. I guess there are those who will never get it. Not to worry. The people do.

It's one reason not to be overly concerned about the Supreme Court's decision on campaign finance allowing corporations to have a say. We do. Unions do. Special interests do. Why shouldn't corporations?

I'd be a lot more concerned if the people weren't showing that we are now capable of seeing through the spin. This is a huge step forward when it comes to taking the country back from those who would force upon us their own ways.

The time since 9/11 is often referred to as the new normal. I hope that's what we are now seeing, this coming of age of the citizenry. That old style politics becomes the anomaly.

I hope too, as I head back to the couch, that whatever it is I have soon becomes the anomaly, not the new norm!

Time Out For A Few Days!

Bad Taste In Politics!

There's a lot of this going around these days. Everything from how the Democrats are trying to force legislation to how the campaign in Massachusetts is being carried out.

Never-the-less, it's still my country and I consider such problems our own to solve. I'm still proud of who we are as a nation with a few exceptions. Rush Limbaugh is on my list again. I'm never quite sure when he's serious or trying to be funny and falling flat. His comment about the Obama administration politicizing the earthquake in Haiti to enhance him image among the black community in this country is beyond the pale even for Limbaugh. Even Bush called him on it.

Unfortunately Limbaugh doesn't seem to have a monopoly on inane views. A French minister added voice to it by suggesting the U.S. was more interested in occupying Haiti than helping.

Venezuela's Chavez suggested much the same by questioning the number of troops we've sent and that we're occupying Haiti undercover.

Well, let's just have a look at this. Who has the manpower and the equipment most needed? The U.S. How about the ability to get it there and organize distribution? The U.S. Who's citizenry is raising millions of dollars via every means possible from Facebook to Twitter to texting? The U.S.

Who else has a neurosurgeon who makes his living as a CNN contributor stepping in to do surgery where medical personnel are in short supply? The U.S.

Which country has two former President's working along side the current administration to facilitate needs? The U.S.

And yes, I might as well ask it. Who would be among the first into France (didn't we do this once before a few wars ago?) and even Venezuela should a similar fate befall them? Yep. The U.S.

Trust me. We'd have no interest in 'occupying' either of you. We'd just want to help your people. Some things you really can't politicize without looking mean spirited or just plain foolish.