I am Jewish and the daughter of Holocaust survivors. I and my grandchildren would be uncomfortable if the history of the Holocaust was not realistically described to them during a history class. Can I sue too?
What makes one child uncomfortable makes another comfortable. There lies the conundrum! The Florida law is as ridiculous as the Florida governor. It’s time we mobilize to remove this Trump wannabe from office. He definitely will not get my vote ( yes, I am a Florida resident).
Dan and Elliot, thank you, again, for your intense and tough yet hopeful perspectives on our history and our future as a people, as a nation. I am uncomfortable with certain aspects of our history, have been for years. Rightfully so.
The Armisteads settled in Virginia in the 1600s and, as history notes, were owners of slaves. General Lewis Addison Armistead fought and died of his wounds in Pickett's Charge in the Battle of Gettysburg defending slavery for the Confederacy. The man I am named after, my grandfather, John Calhoun Armistead, was born in Alabama and wore the garb of the KKK. Other members of the Armistead clan, from Virginia to Alabama to Texas, also were proponents of white supremacy, and after the Civil War maintained their racism, their bigotry. Some still do to this day. All of this history is difficult to acknowledge, and is painful for me, especially as I look into the face of my dear friends where I live in North Texas who happen to be African-American.
Yes, some parts of American history are painful and embarrassing for me. Yet, some of my family history is honorable: my father (born in Alabama in 1889) fought in World War One; my brothers-in-law served and fought in World War Two; my only brother, named after my father, served in the Korean War; I served during the Vietnam War era, as did one of my nephews; one nephew served during the Gulf Wars. Honorable defenders of America and its democracy and its efforts to do good in the world.
Armisteads. Honorable in so many ways, yet still stained with the disease of racism. My family history and my nation's history disturb me and are painful for me day to day. What I do, the only thing I can do, as a 78-year-old man, is to honor that pain, the uncomfortable aspects of American history, and first, do no more harm. Thank you for "listening", Dan and Elliot.
I am white and 80 years old. I am a product of the Jim Crow era bring born and raised in South Eastern Alabama. I became "woke" at about age 12 when I worked side by side in a field picking cotton with a black boy my age. Like kids will, we just talked about kid things. Going to town, what went on in school, our friends, etc. When I learned what this kid had to go through just to get a pair shoes for school and that he had to share school books with 2 to 4 other kids, depending on the book, I was appalled. Even at 12, I knew something was not right with where I lived. About 3 years later when both of us were in 10th grade, he was so excited he was going to get to graduate from a newly constructed school. There was not enough money for new desks and chairs and some books still had to be shared but at least there were no cracks in the walls and no windows boarded up. When I returned to school, we had new desks. Guess who got our old ones! If you guessed the "separate but equal" school my black friend attended, you would be correct. Worse yet, the white people in my community patted themselves on the back for "donating" those desks to the school. I learned at an early age that the only thing that made the 2 of us different was the color of our skin and our gender. That was then and the same is still true. The people who are trying to ban books, make sure the white kids are not made "uncomfortable" are the same people who are still denying the outcome of the Civil War and are still trying to convince people of color they are inferior in every way, based on the color of their skin. The very worse thing they are doing is raising the next generation of people with the same beliefs. There will be some kids like me that see what they are being told by the adults in their life is not truthful or based in reality. But if this covering up the truth and telling huge lies to replace it continues unabated, there will be another civil war. There are too many white supremacy organized groups and even more who support their goals of a "white" America to carry it out. The only weapon the "woke" translated to "true patriots" have to fight is the ballot box. I believe there are more like me than the believers that the white race is superior. We just don't get in people's faces, curse them or chase them down and kill people of color. So the world does not know we exist. The vote is our strongest weapon. We cannot let the Republican party and the Supreme Court take that from us or we will be back to 1860 with no hope for the future of the country.
Growing up in Texas, I very much got the Southern whitewashed versions of the Texas War for Independence, slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and more. My Harvard Law classmate and fellow Texan Annette Gordon-Reed has published a short book, “On Juneteenth,” that wonderfully reflects growing up at the same time, but on the other side of that racial divide. I highly recommend it. The teaching of ACTUAL history - not just what makes us comfortable - is fundamental to the long-term life of the republic.
Dan, you are so right that this movement to sanitize our history is about the future. It is about power and control of our country moving forward. As a retired teacher, I don't believe that I could have taught my high school students American Literature under the strictures of bills now making their way through legislatures in Florida, Indiana, and Oklahoma. I'm sure there are similar bills in other states but I've read about these three. If these bills become law, I suspect that many public school teachers will leave the profession that they love. It would be impossible to teach effectively under such restrictions. I have been reading the 1619 book. I try to read an essay/poem a day. Some of the historical narratives are so painful to read, but I am willing to be uncomfortable so I can learn more truth about the history of America. We all should.
That people want to ban books, censure education, and keep from teaching the truth to children is reprehensible to me. Two pivotal memories from my childhood tells me that it won’t work, anyway. One is being in Sunday school, asking a question the teacher couldn’t answer, and the second was when I was in about fifth grade. I read the textbook story about native Americans and I knew the premise was wrong. My trust in adults having all the answers, and being the authority was forever changed. Critical thinking for students is imperative. Thanks, Dan Rather, and your staff, for keeping up your good work!
My son was a history professor in Sacramento until his untimely death. He was a proponent for teaching the hard facts of American history and was never admonished for the content of his classes. Even in casual conversations, he gently guided people in the art of research. I am establishing a non-profit in his name that will include a history scholarship for students would will carry on his effort. I look forward to the day that history is taught in an unbiased environment.
Thank you again Dan for your very thoughtful commentary. I am a child of the 50s and do not recall learning about the Tulsa Black Wall Street Massacre, Juneteenth, the Trail of Tears or the Sand Creek Massacre just to mention a few injustices from our past. Learned much of this from Heather Cox Richardson who like you is a beacon into all of our past. There are many sources for information out there and my hope is for my grandkids to find them-not just in books that may be selected for them-I certainly do not want to see that happen either! We must learn from our mistakes not hide from them to have any opportunity to become “a more perfect union”
Thank you again Dan Rather for your candor and truth.
From the Brookings Institute in 2018: “we are on the cusp of seeing the first minority white generation, born in 2007 and later…”
When I heard someone on a podcast say we have seen the last generation that is White majority born, I started wondering if this explains the Republican’s accelerated efforts to cement and center White Dominance, to suppress history and suppress the votes and voices of minorities…? Are they seeing this as their last chance to preserve their power?
What would it look like if, instead, they welcomed the diverse cultures and voices in our current America, looked at the past with open eyes, found ways to insure we never made those mistakes again and reimagined a better future for all? That’s what I want in my leaders.
PS, I am in that future minority and not at all scared about it.
My family emigrated from the UK in 1968, all too aware of the man who had just been elected to the presidency, with a vague knowledge of the rumblings of social discontent that were to shake this nation like an 8.5 earthquake. We entered the "Age of Nixon" - a time just as perilous and uncertain as the years of another man who aspired to greatness and failed miserably.
As an expat Brit I can claim over 1,500 years of history - and it's' social and economic cost to an over-extended and brutal Empire - being drummed into my 'dear little ear' - and we certainly refused to accept Santayana's Maxim ["Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."]. There were American youngsters at my boarding school who carefully skirted the issues of race and diversity, cheerfully slandered the First Citizens, and belittled those who dared speak against an escalating war in Asia.
I cannot remember if it was Marx (yes, I've read both Karl and Groucho !) or Lenin who noted that history is written by the victors...or winners. Perhaps that's what terrifies DeSantis and his ilk...that their narrow-minded views will eventually be erased from the national debate(s) on race and our own "ethnic cleansing", that burning books or stifling free expression will bleach-clean the souls of the nation. Germany has attempted this, as have Russia, China and countless petty dictatorships, and yet there remains a few flickers of resistance..of hope..in the national darkness. Alexander Solzhenitsyn proved this truth, again and again and again.
Thankfully, we as a nation are awakening to the singular fact that we cannot afford the bottom-dwellers such as DeSantis - our democracy cannot afford this man just as we decided that we could not afford the man the GOP has come to embrace as its' savior.
I wish that I owned a time machine and could transport some of these soap-box babblers back to Eastern Europe in the 1960's, walk as shadows as I carefully found my way through Budapest, Prague and even war-battered Vienna...stared in the eyes of young and old alike, and seen those flickers of hope, the dream that their immediate lives wouldn't become a darker history again. They too remembered Santayana...and to turn one's back on the past cannot ever lead to a brighter future.
I am a 74 year old white woman. I went to school in Ohio and Arizona. I always valued learning history. I have always believed that we can and should learn from history. While I believed past atrocities, such as slavery and the holocaust were very shameful, I believe knowledge of such horrors teaches us to be better. I am stunned that some white people are so ridiculous as to think they and their children will feel guilt for what others did. We need to know the ugliness of history to make today’s world better. To those people, I say, GROW UP!!
I am Jewish and the daughter of Holocaust survivors. I and my grandchildren would be uncomfortable if the history of the Holocaust was not realistically described to them during a history class. Can I sue too?
What makes one child uncomfortable makes another comfortable. There lies the conundrum! The Florida law is as ridiculous as the Florida governor. It’s time we mobilize to remove this Trump wannabe from office. He definitely will not get my vote ( yes, I am a Florida resident).
Thanks for this. We will read it in US history class today along side GA Senate bill 377.
Dan and Elliot, thank you, again, for your intense and tough yet hopeful perspectives on our history and our future as a people, as a nation. I am uncomfortable with certain aspects of our history, have been for years. Rightfully so.
The Armisteads settled in Virginia in the 1600s and, as history notes, were owners of slaves. General Lewis Addison Armistead fought and died of his wounds in Pickett's Charge in the Battle of Gettysburg defending slavery for the Confederacy. The man I am named after, my grandfather, John Calhoun Armistead, was born in Alabama and wore the garb of the KKK. Other members of the Armistead clan, from Virginia to Alabama to Texas, also were proponents of white supremacy, and after the Civil War maintained their racism, their bigotry. Some still do to this day. All of this history is difficult to acknowledge, and is painful for me, especially as I look into the face of my dear friends where I live in North Texas who happen to be African-American.
Yes, some parts of American history are painful and embarrassing for me. Yet, some of my family history is honorable: my father (born in Alabama in 1889) fought in World War One; my brothers-in-law served and fought in World War Two; my only brother, named after my father, served in the Korean War; I served during the Vietnam War era, as did one of my nephews; one nephew served during the Gulf Wars. Honorable defenders of America and its democracy and its efforts to do good in the world.
Armisteads. Honorable in so many ways, yet still stained with the disease of racism. My family history and my nation's history disturb me and are painful for me day to day. What I do, the only thing I can do, as a 78-year-old man, is to honor that pain, the uncomfortable aspects of American history, and first, do no more harm. Thank you for "listening", Dan and Elliot.
John Armistead
I am white and 80 years old. I am a product of the Jim Crow era bring born and raised in South Eastern Alabama. I became "woke" at about age 12 when I worked side by side in a field picking cotton with a black boy my age. Like kids will, we just talked about kid things. Going to town, what went on in school, our friends, etc. When I learned what this kid had to go through just to get a pair shoes for school and that he had to share school books with 2 to 4 other kids, depending on the book, I was appalled. Even at 12, I knew something was not right with where I lived. About 3 years later when both of us were in 10th grade, he was so excited he was going to get to graduate from a newly constructed school. There was not enough money for new desks and chairs and some books still had to be shared but at least there were no cracks in the walls and no windows boarded up. When I returned to school, we had new desks. Guess who got our old ones! If you guessed the "separate but equal" school my black friend attended, you would be correct. Worse yet, the white people in my community patted themselves on the back for "donating" those desks to the school. I learned at an early age that the only thing that made the 2 of us different was the color of our skin and our gender. That was then and the same is still true. The people who are trying to ban books, make sure the white kids are not made "uncomfortable" are the same people who are still denying the outcome of the Civil War and are still trying to convince people of color they are inferior in every way, based on the color of their skin. The very worse thing they are doing is raising the next generation of people with the same beliefs. There will be some kids like me that see what they are being told by the adults in their life is not truthful or based in reality. But if this covering up the truth and telling huge lies to replace it continues unabated, there will be another civil war. There are too many white supremacy organized groups and even more who support their goals of a "white" America to carry it out. The only weapon the "woke" translated to "true patriots" have to fight is the ballot box. I believe there are more like me than the believers that the white race is superior. We just don't get in people's faces, curse them or chase them down and kill people of color. So the world does not know we exist. The vote is our strongest weapon. We cannot let the Republican party and the Supreme Court take that from us or we will be back to 1860 with no hope for the future of the country.
Growing up in Texas, I very much got the Southern whitewashed versions of the Texas War for Independence, slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and more. My Harvard Law classmate and fellow Texan Annette Gordon-Reed has published a short book, “On Juneteenth,” that wonderfully reflects growing up at the same time, but on the other side of that racial divide. I highly recommend it. The teaching of ACTUAL history - not just what makes us comfortable - is fundamental to the long-term life of the republic.
Dan, you are so right that this movement to sanitize our history is about the future. It is about power and control of our country moving forward. As a retired teacher, I don't believe that I could have taught my high school students American Literature under the strictures of bills now making their way through legislatures in Florida, Indiana, and Oklahoma. I'm sure there are similar bills in other states but I've read about these three. If these bills become law, I suspect that many public school teachers will leave the profession that they love. It would be impossible to teach effectively under such restrictions. I have been reading the 1619 book. I try to read an essay/poem a day. Some of the historical narratives are so painful to read, but I am willing to be uncomfortable so I can learn more truth about the history of America. We all should.
The teaching of history should be on the basis of what is true, not on what makes us uncomfortable.
"Theirs is an act of fear masked as bravado." Rock on, Danno!!!!
That people want to ban books, censure education, and keep from teaching the truth to children is reprehensible to me. Two pivotal memories from my childhood tells me that it won’t work, anyway. One is being in Sunday school, asking a question the teacher couldn’t answer, and the second was when I was in about fifth grade. I read the textbook story about native Americans and I knew the premise was wrong. My trust in adults having all the answers, and being the authority was forever changed. Critical thinking for students is imperative. Thanks, Dan Rather, and your staff, for keeping up your good work!
My son was a history professor in Sacramento until his untimely death. He was a proponent for teaching the hard facts of American history and was never admonished for the content of his classes. Even in casual conversations, he gently guided people in the art of research. I am establishing a non-profit in his name that will include a history scholarship for students would will carry on his effort. I look forward to the day that history is taught in an unbiased environment.
Thank you again Dan for your very thoughtful commentary. I am a child of the 50s and do not recall learning about the Tulsa Black Wall Street Massacre, Juneteenth, the Trail of Tears or the Sand Creek Massacre just to mention a few injustices from our past. Learned much of this from Heather Cox Richardson who like you is a beacon into all of our past. There are many sources for information out there and my hope is for my grandkids to find them-not just in books that may be selected for them-I certainly do not want to see that happen either! We must learn from our mistakes not hide from them to have any opportunity to become “a more perfect union”
Thank you again Dan Rather for your candor and truth.
Thank you, Mr. Rather! This is spot on!! These people live in the realm of, “if I close my eyes, they can’t see me.” Sad AND scary.
From the Brookings Institute in 2018: “we are on the cusp of seeing the first minority white generation, born in 2007 and later…”
When I heard someone on a podcast say we have seen the last generation that is White majority born, I started wondering if this explains the Republican’s accelerated efforts to cement and center White Dominance, to suppress history and suppress the votes and voices of minorities…? Are they seeing this as their last chance to preserve their power?
What would it look like if, instead, they welcomed the diverse cultures and voices in our current America, looked at the past with open eyes, found ways to insure we never made those mistakes again and reimagined a better future for all? That’s what I want in my leaders.
PS, I am in that future minority and not at all scared about it.
My family emigrated from the UK in 1968, all too aware of the man who had just been elected to the presidency, with a vague knowledge of the rumblings of social discontent that were to shake this nation like an 8.5 earthquake. We entered the "Age of Nixon" - a time just as perilous and uncertain as the years of another man who aspired to greatness and failed miserably.
As an expat Brit I can claim over 1,500 years of history - and it's' social and economic cost to an over-extended and brutal Empire - being drummed into my 'dear little ear' - and we certainly refused to accept Santayana's Maxim ["Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."]. There were American youngsters at my boarding school who carefully skirted the issues of race and diversity, cheerfully slandered the First Citizens, and belittled those who dared speak against an escalating war in Asia.
I cannot remember if it was Marx (yes, I've read both Karl and Groucho !) or Lenin who noted that history is written by the victors...or winners. Perhaps that's what terrifies DeSantis and his ilk...that their narrow-minded views will eventually be erased from the national debate(s) on race and our own "ethnic cleansing", that burning books or stifling free expression will bleach-clean the souls of the nation. Germany has attempted this, as have Russia, China and countless petty dictatorships, and yet there remains a few flickers of resistance..of hope..in the national darkness. Alexander Solzhenitsyn proved this truth, again and again and again.
Thankfully, we as a nation are awakening to the singular fact that we cannot afford the bottom-dwellers such as DeSantis - our democracy cannot afford this man just as we decided that we could not afford the man the GOP has come to embrace as its' savior.
I wish that I owned a time machine and could transport some of these soap-box babblers back to Eastern Europe in the 1960's, walk as shadows as I carefully found my way through Budapest, Prague and even war-battered Vienna...stared in the eyes of young and old alike, and seen those flickers of hope, the dream that their immediate lives wouldn't become a darker history again. They too remembered Santayana...and to turn one's back on the past cannot ever lead to a brighter future.
You've done it again, Dan! You, sir, are a National Treasure!
I am a 74 year old white woman. I went to school in Ohio and Arizona. I always valued learning history. I have always believed that we can and should learn from history. While I believed past atrocities, such as slavery and the holocaust were very shameful, I believe knowledge of such horrors teaches us to be better. I am stunned that some white people are so ridiculous as to think they and their children will feel guilt for what others did. We need to know the ugliness of history to make today’s world better. To those people, I say, GROW UP!!