Yes, thank you Mike. What you share about the history of Texas makes great sense. It seems that delusional thinking about the history of the US has been a consistent narrative in our country. When I first read about the 1619 project from the NYT, it was clear to me that while no history is perfect, the history that was shared by Nikole Hannah-Jones and others was far closer to an honest story about how and why slavery unfolded over the past 4 centuries. Thank you for shedding more light. How can we heal from the past if we can't name what happened? 💜
"How can we heal from the past if we can't name what happened?" Exactly! I am so over the revisionist narratives that seem to have regained ground recently. One thing it has taught me is to read history from historians from other countries, to get a more balanced perspective. The narrative on the Alamo and Texas independence is profoundly different when written by Mexican historians. It is eye opening to view the history of the U.S. from an "outside" perspective.
It took a while for a smile to break free from my face. As I read your post, half my muscles wanted to crack a smile and some rogue muscles opposed it. You could say there was a civil war between my (colonized) upper lip and my (woke) lower lip. If I could discern with some degree of clarity the images, thoughts and feelings flowing through, I'd say, a (big) part of me accepted your assertions with seriousness. And, I wanted to giggle like a little girl in church mass because I appreciate your humor. Thank you for all you do to inform yourself and then share with us.
I read the article in the Texas Monthly and it seems they want a balanced view between heroes and history, but they can't agree where the balance lies. And it seems they can't agree whether they want truth or legend.
There's a fairly strong movement towards the idea of putting a cloth over your eyes when it comes to history in the attempt to erase the bad bits and live happily ever after in the sanitized world where slavery didn't really happen, or it wasn't that bad.
But how are we ever supposed to do better if we are unable to confront facts? The way forward is to recognize what happened, what we did, and say now let's vow to do better. We as a people can grow, But that takes a type of courage that unfortunately seems to be in shorter supply these days.
Thanks for the article, Mike. Very interesting and enlightening read.
Exactly. And while I realize that revisionist historical narratives are not at all unique to the U.S., it is quite discouraging to see how rampant it has become. The entire MAGA outlook is predicated on some dreamy false narrative of a "greatness" that not even Trump's most loyal fans can define.
Ah well, my next article will be about airplanes 🙂
Nice to have some reality checks as misinformation is so common these days, to the point of being an acceptable way to report news. No country seems completely free of this, though the US has degraded pretty quickly in this department (at least that is what it feels like). Thanks for trying to dig up and present the facts!
Yes, thank you Mike. What you share about the history of Texas makes great sense. It seems that delusional thinking about the history of the US has been a consistent narrative in our country. When I first read about the 1619 project from the NYT, it was clear to me that while no history is perfect, the history that was shared by Nikole Hannah-Jones and others was far closer to an honest story about how and why slavery unfolded over the past 4 centuries. Thank you for shedding more light. How can we heal from the past if we can't name what happened? 💜
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html
"How can we heal from the past if we can't name what happened?" Exactly! I am so over the revisionist narratives that seem to have regained ground recently. One thing it has taught me is to read history from historians from other countries, to get a more balanced perspective. The narrative on the Alamo and Texas independence is profoundly different when written by Mexican historians. It is eye opening to view the history of the U.S. from an "outside" perspective.
It took a while for a smile to break free from my face. As I read your post, half my muscles wanted to crack a smile and some rogue muscles opposed it. You could say there was a civil war between my (colonized) upper lip and my (woke) lower lip. If I could discern with some degree of clarity the images, thoughts and feelings flowing through, I'd say, a (big) part of me accepted your assertions with seriousness. And, I wanted to giggle like a little girl in church mass because I appreciate your humor. Thank you for all you do to inform yourself and then share with us.
Thanks Elva. Sorry to start a disagreement between your upper and lower lips. I'm sure they will come back together soon 🙂
I read the article in the Texas Monthly and it seems they want a balanced view between heroes and history, but they can't agree where the balance lies. And it seems they can't agree whether they want truth or legend.
There's a fairly strong movement towards the idea of putting a cloth over your eyes when it comes to history in the attempt to erase the bad bits and live happily ever after in the sanitized world where slavery didn't really happen, or it wasn't that bad.
But how are we ever supposed to do better if we are unable to confront facts? The way forward is to recognize what happened, what we did, and say now let's vow to do better. We as a people can grow, But that takes a type of courage that unfortunately seems to be in shorter supply these days.
Thanks for the article, Mike. Very interesting and enlightening read.
Exactly. And while I realize that revisionist historical narratives are not at all unique to the U.S., it is quite discouraging to see how rampant it has become. The entire MAGA outlook is predicated on some dreamy false narrative of a "greatness" that not even Trump's most loyal fans can define.
Ah well, my next article will be about airplanes 🙂
Thanks for the comment, Victor!
Ah, yes indeed.
Now I look forward to airplanes :) Thanks Mike.
Nice to have some reality checks as misinformation is so common these days, to the point of being an acceptable way to report news. No country seems completely free of this, though the US has degraded pretty quickly in this department (at least that is what it feels like). Thanks for trying to dig up and present the facts!
Thanks Christy. Yes, there is a lot of misinformation these days, and a lot of effort being put in to maintain and even extend that status quo. Sigh.