It truly saddens me that red states are continuing to try and de-emphasize the importance of quality education. Instead of increasing taxes on the top 2% of earners, they feel it'd be better to strip funding from schools. Instead of lowering college tuition and interest rates in exchange for raising those before-mentioned taxes, let's continue to leave college-bound students (and their families) in large amounts of debt for several years. Not only that, but as Oklahoma lawmakers have recently suggested through the passing of a bill which would basically do away with AP U.S. history, instead of teaching students all that happened throughout history, both the good and the bad, let's just focus on teaching them what we want them to learn - you know, the good.
As Republican State Representative Dan Fisher said, "In essence, we have a new emphasis on what is bad about America... (The new framework) trades an emphasis on America's founding principles of Constitutional government in favor of robust analyses of gender and racial oppression and class ethnicity and the lives of marginalized people, where the emphasis on instruction is of America as a nation of oppressors and exploiters."
This is one of the areas where die-hard Republicans drive me up a wall, both figuratively and literally, okay, perhaps just figuratively. To them, admitting any mistake by this country in our history is akin to bashing this nation. To say we're imperfect and criticize any aspect of our past or present is unpatriotic and borderline treasonous according to them. They'll often times say, "If you don't like it here, get out!" which I find to be increasingly humorous, since they've appeared unhappy here since January 20th of 2009 when Barack Obama officially became president of this country.
What's funnier yet is the fact many of these far-right Republicans are self-proclaimed devout Christians. So, according to The Bible, man is imperfect, which is why that Jesus fella supposedly gave his life as a sacrifice for our sins. So, if man is imperfect and a country is filled with imperfect men (and women), how then can a country be perfect? I guess it's just one of those unsolved mysteries to which we may never find an answer.
Joking aside, though, aren't there typically things about our best friends, closest family members, and even spouse (or children) that we find to be imperfect and may not even like? Does that negate from the fact we love these people that are dearest to us? No, of course not. Well, the same holds true for one's home country. One can criticize an aspect about it or admit a mistake from its past, but that doesn't negate from the fact he or she loves their country. We seriously need to get off this say-we're-perfect-or-go-elsewhere bus, because it's growing increasingly ridiculous.
How are kids supposed to learn, grow, and become leaders whom don't make the same mistakes we've made in the past if they're not educated about these very mistakes? It would appear to most rational individuals that it's simply common sense to educate our youth about this country's history in its totality, from the great events about which we hold our heads high to the not so great events which we'd like to forget. That's the thing right there - forgive, but don't forget. Forgive our past leaders of mistakes they have made, but don't forget them, for we don't want to make them again.
Sure, we'd like to pretend all the mistakes we've made in our pasts never occurred, but they did, and so long as we put forth a grand effort to learn from those mistakes and not commit them again, we'll be all the better for it in the end.
According to reality, here's how a condensed version of this country's history should read:
"There have been good times and bad in our nation's history. We essentially stole it from the Natives which they didn't seem to appreciate a great deal. There's been slavery, but we eventually fixed that problem. There's been racism, sexism, and homophobia, but we've been making great strides in all three areas. We've fought in several wars, some which were probably necessary and others that weren't. Our technologies are ever expanding and our arts and entertainment are the envy of the world, well, most of it anyway. We possess a great deal more freedom than most other countries, yet still sometimes have trouble balancing that very freedom with a sense of security. Our education and medical systems aren't bad in comparison to third-world countries, but are lagging behind some other developed nations. We have a very strange electoral college system that 99% of the world, including our own citizens, don't firmly understand. We're large, diverse, continually trying to improve, and willing to kick some butt whenever given the opportunity, whether essential or not; we are the U S of A."
According to Oklahoma lawmakers, here's how that history should read:
"Jesus Christ created the USA on the first day, will always be our president, and because of that, this is the greatest nation in the history of the country of the world of the planet of the galaxy of the universe of the heavens and beyond in history! Anyone that says otherwise can shut their pie hole and move! U S A! U S A! U S A ! U S A!"
http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/18/us/oklahoma-ap-history/
As Republican State Representative Dan Fisher said, "In essence, we have a new emphasis on what is bad about America... (The new framework) trades an emphasis on America's founding principles of Constitutional government in favor of robust analyses of gender and racial oppression and class ethnicity and the lives of marginalized people, where the emphasis on instruction is of America as a nation of oppressors and exploiters."
This is one of the areas where die-hard Republicans drive me up a wall, both figuratively and literally, okay, perhaps just figuratively. To them, admitting any mistake by this country in our history is akin to bashing this nation. To say we're imperfect and criticize any aspect of our past or present is unpatriotic and borderline treasonous according to them. They'll often times say, "If you don't like it here, get out!" which I find to be increasingly humorous, since they've appeared unhappy here since January 20th of 2009 when Barack Obama officially became president of this country.
What's funnier yet is the fact many of these far-right Republicans are self-proclaimed devout Christians. So, according to The Bible, man is imperfect, which is why that Jesus fella supposedly gave his life as a sacrifice for our sins. So, if man is imperfect and a country is filled with imperfect men (and women), how then can a country be perfect? I guess it's just one of those unsolved mysteries to which we may never find an answer.
Joking aside, though, aren't there typically things about our best friends, closest family members, and even spouse (or children) that we find to be imperfect and may not even like? Does that negate from the fact we love these people that are dearest to us? No, of course not. Well, the same holds true for one's home country. One can criticize an aspect about it or admit a mistake from its past, but that doesn't negate from the fact he or she loves their country. We seriously need to get off this say-we're-perfect-or-go-elsewhere bus, because it's growing increasingly ridiculous.
How are kids supposed to learn, grow, and become leaders whom don't make the same mistakes we've made in the past if they're not educated about these very mistakes? It would appear to most rational individuals that it's simply common sense to educate our youth about this country's history in its totality, from the great events about which we hold our heads high to the not so great events which we'd like to forget. That's the thing right there - forgive, but don't forget. Forgive our past leaders of mistakes they have made, but don't forget them, for we don't want to make them again.
Sure, we'd like to pretend all the mistakes we've made in our pasts never occurred, but they did, and so long as we put forth a grand effort to learn from those mistakes and not commit them again, we'll be all the better for it in the end.
According to reality, here's how a condensed version of this country's history should read:
"There have been good times and bad in our nation's history. We essentially stole it from the Natives which they didn't seem to appreciate a great deal. There's been slavery, but we eventually fixed that problem. There's been racism, sexism, and homophobia, but we've been making great strides in all three areas. We've fought in several wars, some which were probably necessary and others that weren't. Our technologies are ever expanding and our arts and entertainment are the envy of the world, well, most of it anyway. We possess a great deal more freedom than most other countries, yet still sometimes have trouble balancing that very freedom with a sense of security. Our education and medical systems aren't bad in comparison to third-world countries, but are lagging behind some other developed nations. We have a very strange electoral college system that 99% of the world, including our own citizens, don't firmly understand. We're large, diverse, continually trying to improve, and willing to kick some butt whenever given the opportunity, whether essential or not; we are the U S of A."
According to Oklahoma lawmakers, here's how that history should read:
"Jesus Christ created the USA on the first day, will always be our president, and because of that, this is the greatest nation in the history of the country of the world of the planet of the galaxy of the universe of the heavens and beyond in history! Anyone that says otherwise can shut their pie hole and move! U S A! U S A! U S A ! U S A!"
http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/18/us/oklahoma-ap-history/
Comments
Post a Comment