History is Written By the Victors

This is a political post so, here is the requisite puppy link.

While the title quote cannot be attributed to one source, we can attribute the degradation of our educational system to the Tea  Party.  In a story you can file under "You have got to be kidding me" we learn that Tea Party activists in Tennessee are actively lobbying to include the rosier aspects of the Antebellum South in the state educational curriculum.

This group of activists wants to include the following in the standards for selecting text books, according to the HuffPost's report:

"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."

In order to celebrate the Founding Fathers, says the Tea Party, we must ignore aspects of history.  Look at the bright side, at least they aren't out-right denying the rape, pillage, and murder.

History has this funny way of being re-written right before it repeats itself.  Am I saying that the Tea Party is advocating for slavery? No.  But their actions sure stink of Jim Crow-era revisionism.

However, it is almost more disturbing that these people can't think beyond a black and white interpretation of history.  Yes, I know this view is liberal, but I kind of hoped it was more of a critical thinking thing than a political point of view thing.  I know that Jefferson was a revolutionary thinker and a slave-owning rapist.  I know there wasn't a cherry tree. Andrew Jackson was a brilliant economic mind and a genocidal imperialist. I know that the Union was more interested in the cotton export tax revenue than universal liberty, but Lincoln is still to be honored as the man who ended slavery. 

I also know that the Founding Fathers lived in a different time and should be judged accordingly...but that doesn't mean we shouldn't learn about the problems of that time.  Slavery is a stain upon our country.  The treatment of Native Americans is a stain upon our country.

For those of you who dismissed these activists as nuts from the comfort of your Pottery-Barn-appointed Liberal Enclave, I say this is what you get you lazy sacks. 

ACH we have it coming to us.