Originally Posted By skinnerbox Yet another reason to hate the Tea Party: <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/01/23/408974/tennessee-tea-party-demands-that-references-to-slavery-be-removed-from-history-textbooks/" target="_blank">http://thinkprogress.org/justi...xtbooks/</a> <> In 2010, the conservatives who controlled the Texas Board of Education caused an uproar when they made radical changes to the history curriculum for the state’s 4.8 million public school students. The changes included referring to the country’s first black president as “Barack Hussein Obama,” and requiring students to “contrast” Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ inaugural address with Abraham Lincoln’s philosophical views. To whitewash one of the darkest practices in America history, conservatives proposed that textbooks refer to the slave trade as the “Atlantic triangular trade.” Now Tennessee Tea Party members are taking their efforts a step further and trying to eliminate references to slavery in American history textbooks. Salon reports that Tea Partiers who fetishize America’s founders are “demanding” that students not be taught that many of them owned slaves: "For a bunch of people who worship the Founders and like to play dress-up American Revolutionary War, Tea Partyers sure hate knowing anything remotely reality-based about the Founding Fathers. Tennessee Tea Party groups have introduced a proposal to take what few minorities there are in American history textbooks out of American history textbooks, along with any negative portrayals of the wealthy white men who led this young nation in its infancy. At a press conference, two dozen activists presented their proposals — I’m sorry, their “demands” — for the new state legislative session. Among them are sweeping changes to school materials that they probably have not actually read. [...] Fayette County attorney Hal Rounds, the group’s lead spokesman during the news conference, said the group wants to address “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.”" Many of America’s first leaders, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, owned slaves. Thomas Jefferson fathered children with his slave Sally Hemings, and James Madison actually brought a slave with him to the White House when he became president. The framers also painstakingly avoided addressing the issue of slavery when they wrote the Constitution, which included a compromise that each slave be counted as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of representation and taxation. But recently, conservatives have preferred to gloss over those ugly truths and deprive students of a complete and honest portrait of the imperfect men who founded our country. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), founder of the congressional Tea Party caucus, famously said that the founders “worked tirelessly” to end slavery. Several of the GOP candidates have even signed a pledge that claimed that blacks were better off under slavery than under President Obama. <> This is what the Republican Party is devolving into, a discount warehouse on revisionist history, both for the nation and their own individual political careers. This isn't about misrepresentation of the truth. This is about lying. This is about fabricating falsehoods to paint yourself, your Party, and your country as morally superior from day one. The Republicans have been hijacked by these nutjobs and now the nutjobs want everyone to snort pixie dust and think the only salvation the country has is to embrace the hate-filled conservative values that they embrace. Seriously, Republican voters... when are you going to finally exclaim, "Enough is enough!" and leave your party's twisted dying carcass in the ditch by the side of the road where it belongs? As far as I'm concerned, anyone voting Republican from now on is just as batsh*t crazy as these clowns. There is absolutely no justification for the destruction of historical FACT in our schools.
Originally Posted By EdisYoda If these things get passed, I may have to seriously start considering if I want to continue as a Citizen and resident of the United States of Nutjobs
Originally Posted By DyGDisney ^^^ Agree. It makes me glad I live in California. I have seriously been thinking maybe it's time for our country to become two, separate nations.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney Huffington Post adds: "And that further teaching would also include that "the Constitution created a Republic, not a Democracy."" <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/tea-party-tennessee-textbooks-slavery_n_1224157.html?ref=education" target="_blank">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...ducation</a>
Originally Posted By Princessjenn5795 ^^ Actually, that part is a true..we are a representative republic, instead of a democracy, because we do not vote on laws and policies directly. Instead we vote to elect representative to do that for us. In a true democracy, every decision would be voted on by the people, which would be absolutely crazy. The rest of it, however, is disgusting. Why in the world would they think that glossing over the bad points in our history would be a good thing. The Founders were no more saints than any of the rest of us are, and as a country we have made some very bad decisions and done some very bad things through out our history. The only to ensure that those mistakes are not repeated is to acknowledge them and learn from them. I really hate this revisionist history trend. Our history is our history, and wishing it were otherwise and refusing to teach our children about it is not going to change that. All of those children who learn the Tea Party version of events are going to be in for a rude awakening when they get to college and find out everything they thought they knew about our history is a load of crap.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney >>>^^ Actually, that part is a true..we are a representative republic, instead of a democracy,<<< I knew it was true, it just BUGS me that they have to make a point of making sure children hear it. It's the agenda behind having it taught that way that ticks me off.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>Why in the world would they think that glossing over the bad points in our history would be a good thing.<< Here's the thing, though. This is nothing new. WE'VE ALWAYS DONE THIS. Deliberately. And until the last 50 yearsw or so, it was considered not just acceptable, but desirable ... by both sides. Go through any teaching materials up through, say, 1965 or so, and you get a simplistic, sanitized, lie-filled history of the USA that's just as bad as what these guys are proposing. History was taught in CIVICS class, the objective being to make kids proud, industrious little Americans rather than history experts. (Side note: Do I really have to point this out on a DISNEY forum?) Whether or not this was a good thing is arguable, but that's what these revisionist weenies are going for. National pride > historical accuracy.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>Go through any teaching materials up through, say, 1965 or so, and you get a simplistic, sanitized, lie-filled history of the USA that's just as bad as what these guys are proposing. History was taught in CIVICS class, the objective being to make kids proud, industrious little Americans rather than history experts.<< Very true. Part of what the 60's were about was coming to grips with the ugly part of our history, not the 2-D version most people up to that point had been taught. The thing is, I think kids will want to be proud, industrious little Americans all the more when they realize they are in a country that can own up to, and learn from, its mistakes. Any penny-ante country can offer some scrubbed-up propaganda filled version of its history. Our strength should be in not playing at that level.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Exactly. But some people are afraid of letting other people think for themselves. Hell, some people are still afraid of the 60's.
Originally Posted By Tikiduck What do you expect from the same party that basically rejects evolution in favor of creationism? Historical and scientific censorship is nothing new, I believe the Nazi party was pretty big on it as well. What is next, book burnings? Looking into the eyes of rabid Tea Party loyalists, one does get a bit of a chill up one's spine.
Originally Posted By tiggertoo Of course not! Why would a bunch of neoconfederates want to implicate themselves. The party of Lincoln my...
Originally Posted By tiggertoo Seriously, if you take the time to read books on Reconstruction and post-recon, you'll find the confederist arguments eerily familiar, including the southern Anti-taxation Leagues that fought federal taxation in the 1880 South.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>Seriously, if you take the time to read books on Reconstruction and post-recon, you'll find the confederist arguments eerily familiar, including the southern Anti-taxation Leagues that fought federal taxation in the 1880 South.<< Ditto books on the antebellum South. Secessionists sounded an awful lot like the tea baggers today.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney >>>Ditto books on the antebellum South. Secessionists sounded an awful lot like the tea baggers today.<<< I'm all for letting them secede.
Originally Posted By Donny Funny currently we don't talk about how Democrats condone slavery in there consistent protection of people who hire illegals and pay them lower then minimum wage and shackle them by discourrage them from learning english so they can communicate with other people.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder To me, post 16 is the only response to drivel like post 15. He talks about learning English in a grammatically poor run-on sentence, and compares slavery to hiring illegals. To top it off however, it would seem he's approving of the practice of not teaching about slavery. Shut up and go home, Donny.
Originally Posted By Donny in other words you agree with me because you love inslaving illegals but you can't come out and admit to it so please stop communicating my (SPP)dark secret.NO
Originally Posted By Donny To me post 18 is a respnse to a person who is telling another poster not to post on a disscussion board made to discuss idea and opinions.But Dems like SPP hate free speech
