This should be inscribed above the door of the Library of Congress. There seems to be agreement on one end of the spectrum that Americans are too weak and emotional to be told the harrowing truth about what our ancestors did to produce the current world. That's why they want to equate Nathan Bedford Forrest's courage with that of John Brown. One terrorized the weak, and the other gave his life to place the conversation more firmly on the table. Down deep, I think that most of us would rather see the past as seamless and both sides slightly at fault, but then we need to distort to explain the present, how my neighborhood is all white in part due to red-lining that probably no longer appears anywhere in textbooks.
Yes, it started in Kansas, where so much of our history should focus because it was where emigres from the South and New England fought for their respective ways of life.
I can't be the only one in these here parts to marvel at the irony of Germany confronting its less-than-savory past with fortitude and the United States confronting its less-than-savory past with cowardice. We may have come forth as a country out of the Age of Enlightenment, but we've rarely shown any sense of enlightenment in 249 years.
The 'truth' makes people defensive. Pilate asked Jesus, "is your truth the same as mine?" Jesus didn't answer, but that rhetorical question does have one - of course not. The Declaration of Independence declares that 'all men are created equal" and then goes on to degrade the "savages" (native Americans) and slaves. My truths are not the same as yours, nor should they be. We are all lied to, from the time we're born until we die. Some of us believe the lies until we are old enough to see the facts. Facts are much different than truth. But they are the same. We have been fed so much bullshit that the lie becomes the truth and damn the facts. Humans create and destroy.
This should be inscribed above the door of the Library of Congress. There seems to be agreement on one end of the spectrum that Americans are too weak and emotional to be told the harrowing truth about what our ancestors did to produce the current world. That's why they want to equate Nathan Bedford Forrest's courage with that of John Brown. One terrorized the weak, and the other gave his life to place the conversation more firmly on the table. Down deep, I think that most of us would rather see the past as seamless and both sides slightly at fault, but then we need to distort to explain the present, how my neighborhood is all white in part due to red-lining that probably no longer appears anywhere in textbooks.
Brown is a great story, isn't he? Had that kind of courage when nobody did.
Yes, it started in Kansas, where so much of our history should focus because it was where emigres from the South and New England fought for their respective ways of life.
Something about very fine people on both sides? Or "they were just following the bank's orders?"
I'm sure there will someone who will come around soon and remind us that's not exactly, exactly what Trump said.
It's a recurring theme that will shortly be left out of history's background music.
Sadly so
I can't be the only one in these here parts to marvel at the irony of Germany confronting its less-than-savory past with fortitude and the United States confronting its less-than-savory past with cowardice. We may have come forth as a country out of the Age of Enlightenment, but we've rarely shown any sense of enlightenment in 249 years.
An excellent point. And who would have been able to convince those the nazis terrorized in the 30s that that would be the case 90 years later?
The 'truth' makes people defensive. Pilate asked Jesus, "is your truth the same as mine?" Jesus didn't answer, but that rhetorical question does have one - of course not. The Declaration of Independence declares that 'all men are created equal" and then goes on to degrade the "savages" (native Americans) and slaves. My truths are not the same as yours, nor should they be. We are all lied to, from the time we're born until we die. Some of us believe the lies until we are old enough to see the facts. Facts are much different than truth. But they are the same. We have been fed so much bullshit that the lie becomes the truth and damn the facts. Humans create and destroy.