Comments on: Remembering History's Evils

By: Ron

Ron — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 03:03:14 +0000

Unfortunately, history being taught in most nations is sanitized to reflect the often false altruism of the nation's past. Columbus continues to be honored with a holiday but only recently are we learning that he was actually a thug who practiced genocide on Hispanola, which preceded the genocide that we practiced upon Native Americans. The sinking of the Maine in Havana Harbor which, like the Tonkin Gulf incident, was an excuse to go to war is another example. The Spanish did not sink the Maine, which we now learn exploded because of mechanical malfunction. The battle cry "Remember the Maine" is now remembered as a farce. But, alas, the beat goes on.

By: Has Hate Corrupted the Church? | onehandclapping

Has Hate Corrupted the Church? | onehandclapping — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:21:46 +0000

[...] summer my inbox filled up with angry responses to my post recounting the often ignored history of the slaughter of the Native American’s at the Taos Pueblo [...]

By: jack

jack — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:04:12 +0000

it IS a shame that we here in the east have nothing left of native american culture except a few place names. sometimes, i feel bad, being a person with native American ancestry, but sometimes i remember that history is a series of conflicts and when you try to mix such different cultures as native Americans and Europeans, it just doesn't work and as most clashes of very different peoples plainly shows, the ones with the superior weapons usually wins. our conquest of america was no more brutal or illogical than the vikings conquest of Europe. it was simply a sociological necessity. when there is a small group of people controlling most of the land and a hungry larger group, one group will usually displace the other. it's just the way things are. no sense crying about it. just take it for what it is. we do seem to be improving as a breed, thankfully. at least people cry about atrocities now.

By: robyn beckley vining

robyn beckley vining — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:34:08 +0000

Having grown up in Austin and surrounded by a very biased teaching of Texas History (not to mention U.S. history), I have spent years re-learning U.S. and Texas history. I have also had to shift my mind set to better understand property rights and whether or not it is right to kill for property. I was a small child being taught reverence and acclaim for the deaths (brutal!) of other humans. A small child who needed a detox and a re-education.

I love Austin. I was there once again in March and my mom took my kids and I to the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum for the who-knows-what-number-th time. I ended up pulling my children out rather abruptly after walking through some of the re-enacted scenes between our "Heroic Texans and their opposition". I felt death inside me as I walked around and took it in, but drew the line where I saw my children's eyes growing wide and bias beginning to fill their hearts… and words.

Thank you for posting this.
May we all do or best to break our biases and live as one human amongst another.
Shalom.

By: Julie Clawson

Julie Clawson — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:07:00 +0000

Nate – I think that was the book my dad was reading that spark these conversations in the first place!

Caryn – I totally don't get the "you only need to learn about your own race" excuse to teaching history, and it comes up all the time! Of course minorities and women need to see ourselves represented in history books but that doesn't mean that white males shouldn't learn those histories also.

But thanks for the history insight. I hadn't heard that story – it is one that really should be in the textbooks.

By: Nate Hinch

Nate Hinch — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:33:49 +0000

Thanks for your insights. For a good, accurate depiction of this period (and a good read), centered around the life of Kit Carson, see Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides. Here's a link to a description of the book along with review quotes. http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385507776

By: Caryn

Caryn — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:13:04 +0000

Thanks, Julie! It IS good to learn about these "secret" histories. In the past year, I learned of the forced repatriation of nearly a million Americans of Mexican descent living in California during the Depression. White people apparently needed jobs, and well, they were easily to pop on a train and ship back to Mexico–which for most of them was a country they never lived in! Of course, when WWII started, the U.S. found these people and DRAFTED them from Mexico!

So, anyway, this story isn't taught in history. My husband lobbied the legislature in IL to mandate that it be taught in history class. Many Republicans and Democrats alike didn't back it because they didn't have any Mexicans in their districts. You know, because they're the only ones who need to know about this… Ugh.

Thanks for sharing this!