Being A Slave To Ignorance

Nothing makes my head threaten to explode faster than dealing with someone who turns their back on a FACT simply because it wrinkles their nose, puckers their sphincter, or simply doesn't play to their innner narrative.

Example:  Those who bang the "this country was founded as a Christian nation" drum as they continue their hypocritical campaign against Islam all the while attempting to instill their own theocracy here in the United States.

FACT:  This country's "founding fathers" - aka, the rich guys in charge - were actually largely deists.  That means they believed there was more to this earthly plane than they could understand or see, but they were not presumptive enough to name it or declare their absolute rightness about their opinion on the matter.

Example:  The many who declare President Obama - you know, the Muslim-socialist-Marxist-with the permanent tan - to have driven this country into a ditch since taking office.

FACT:  Despite what they so fervently want to cling to, history did not begin on January 20, 2009.  In January 2001, as Clinton was leaving office and Bush was entering, the Congressional Budget Office estimated then that the government would run an average annual surplus of more than $800 billion a year from 2009 to 2012.

That bears repeating:  AVERAGE SURPLUS OF MORE THAN $800 BILLION A YEAR.

Fast forward to January 2009 as Bush was leaving and Obama was entering:  The CBO projected a $1.2 trillion deficit for 2009 and deficits in subsequent years, based on continuing Mr. Bush’s policies and the effects of recession.

YES, the deficit has continued to increase, as should be expected in trying to pull this country out of the morass into which we have been mired.  Has President Obama's administration done everything right?  Of course not.  But then, who among us (besides Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Doughboy-Cheater-Extraordinaire Gingrich) knows exactly what steps to take to insure 100% success?  Quite frankly, I wouldn't take the job if you promised to pay me $800 billion a year.

Today's example that has brought on this rant, however, does not have to do with the FACT vs FICTION fight over  government spending or religion, but on a certain segment of the populace intent on sticking its fingers in its ears and going la la la la la over this country's actual history in favor of making it much more palatable and white people friendly.

It seems a segment of the Tea Party in Tennessee is pushing an effort to get school textbooks rewritten so that our history of slave ownership is seen in a good light.

I take that back - that last line was far too generous.

What they are seeking is to delete references to slavery and FACTS regarding the country's founders being slave owners

Kind of a ServPro for the history books:  Like it never even happened.

Their bullshit justification?  Their mouthpiece, Hal Rounds, Fayette County attorney and spokesman for the group, says there has been "an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another."

Pssst, Hal.  Intruding?   Is that your delicate way of covering the FACT that we came upon these shores and annihilated the people who LIVED HERE FIRST? 

"The thing we need to focus on about the founders is that, given the social structure of their time, they were revolutionaries who brought liberty into a world where it hadn't existed, to everybody -- not all equally instantly -- and it was their progress that we need to look at."

Not all equally, instantly?

Yes, Hal - because the collective white WE looked down their noses at the dark skinned natives they stole from another land and brought here to do their bidding.  Those PEOPLE were not chained, stuffed in ships, and sold on platforms with the whispered promise of  "Just hang in there, buddy, we'll set you free eventually, just not instantly.  Now, turn around so I can whip your hide."

Of course, all this is spurred on, and these people emboldened by, the fact that my highly enlightened state approved a measure to distort school textbooks to better align with the highly conservative, woefully ignorant, and intellectually incurious mindset which is so prevalent here (see: Rick Perry).

They are calling on Tennessee lawmakers to amend textbook selection criteria to include: "No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership." 

"...obscure the experience of contributions of the Founding Fathers..."

THEY.  OWNED. SLAVES.

That is historical FACT, you 15 watt dimbulbs.  Like it or not, your precious founding fathers OWNED PEOPLE.  Deleting this information, hell, even obscuring it or rewriting it to a gentler tone, is to ignore both the imperfect origins of this country and the progress we have made as a people since.

Historical revisionism is a dangerous thing.  Making the unpalatable disappear is a huge disservice.  Those who would seek to rewrite history are making it woefully easier for future generations to repeat it as the lessons learned are obliterated.

But revisionism is their thing, I guess.

Those Bibles they cling to to back their bigoted, idiotic positions have been rewritten, revised, reversed, amended, altered, and redistributed countless times since the book's inception.

But it's hard to acknowledge that when your back is turned and your fingers are in your ears...  la la la la la la...

Comments

[Tracy in Cincy]

Thank you Linda, for putting into words what I could not. When I heard about this my head was ready to explode.

[Alexandra]

Just the headline of this story ticked me off enough that I couldn't read the article. We watched The Help recently and I wanted to jump through the screen and strangle some of those characters (especially Hilly).

[audreyf]

That is as much a slap in the face to those of us descended from slaves as the firehoses used in the 60's.

[Chicky (Kathy)]

This pissed me off too - I posted about it on FB this morning, but after reading the thread about Sanitorium (Santorum), I couldn't see straight...two controverial issues in one day made my tiny little mind implode. I couldn't sleep and remembered that I skipped over this because I had brain matter all over my brain matter. You are so right [again] Linda, revisionist history is as bad as those that believe genocide during WWII never happened.

[Nikki]

Oh for heavens sake. Slavery and numerous other atrocities in American history happened. They happened. They can whitewash it (pun not intended) all they want but you can't hide the truth. My guess is that the voices of reason will prevail and this wild scheme will die a well deserved death. Why do so many people fear the truth?