Thursday, July 30, 2020

Is It Truly Necessary?

This past week, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton suggested that slavery was "a necessary evil." After making this pronouncement, he immediately shaded it by saying this was the Founding Fathers' decision. It is by no means a coincidence that Senator Tom is also sponsoring the Saving American History Act of 2020 which would cut off professional development funding from any school district using curriculum from the 1619 Project. The year 1619 is when African slaves first set foot on this continent. The program suggests this was the true "Birth of a Nation." 
Senator Tom is having none of this. Which is why he says things like slavery was a necessary evil, and that the “union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction.” But it's probably best that we don't expect that the extinction will come anytime soon, right, Tom?
Tom continues to throw up the "views of the founders" as his rationale. History, as we have been told repeatedly, is written by the victors. Not by some leftie working at the New York Times. A black woman journalist? Oh my, I believe I might succumb to this terrible case of the vapors! How could anything she has to say or think have any bearing on the matter? Is she a Founding Father? No? So prepare to be shut down, Nikole Hannah-Jones
Meanwhile, over here I continue to wonder just how we're going to spread any curriculum in a country that seems to want to hold education hostage until things are taught when and how the powers-that-be deem appropriate. Quit complaining about the pandemic, put on a mask and start herding those eight year olds into socially distancing pods that will learn to respect their country and their flag because that's what they are supposed to do.
Questions? There are none. Do as you are told. As our fathers and the Founding Fathers told us to do. Why can't you just be satisfied with the marching orders handed down from on high? If there was a problem with slavery, it was fixed when Honest Abe freed them and set them on a path to equality. Never mind if that path turns out to be heavily guarded with vicious dogs and land mines. You've got a path. Quit your whining. 
And thinking. As Senator Tom says, if “local, left-wing school boards want to fill their children’s heads with anti-American rot, that’s their regrettable choice, but they ought not to benefit from federal tax dollars to teach America’s children to hate America.” Besides, it seems as though Senator Tom and his associates already have the market cornered on hate. 
Is all that evil really necessary?

1 comment:

Kristen Caven said...

I went to a public school, and that's what they taught me! Where do you suppose not Mista Cotton got his idea? #notmakingsense