Performing a Historectomy on America

First, let me make clear that I am not referring to a hysterectomy, or removal of the uterus, but a historectomy, or removal of our history.

Next, let me explain why this is especially critical for America. To do so, let me contrast America with France.

The area we now call France was settled by Celtic peoples called Gauls in prehistoric times, hundreds or perhaps thousands of years B.C. The Romans under Caesar invaded and spread Roman customs and law and the Latin language, on which French is based.

The last major addition was the invasion of the Franks, a Germanic tribe that settled northwestern France and gave the nation its name. This occurred roughly 1,500 years ago. That is, for a millennium and a half, approximately the same people have occupied roughly the same area.

When we talk about France and the French, we know very well what and whom we mean. Despite all the wars and other changes of the last 1,500 years, France remains France. But what of America?

A small strip of the Atlantic coast was settled by Europeans in the late 1500s and early 1600s. A large chunk of the central continent was added with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and the Southwest was added in 1848 after the Mexican War. These huge areas were peopled by successive waves of immigrants from many lands, who largely displaced the Native Americans.

When we talk about America and Americans, we must specify what time we refer to, and which segment of the population we mean. Unlike older nations, America is a relatively recent invention. Its population shifted over time, and is still shifting because of continued immigration.

Unlike France and many other nations, America is an idea. To define America, one cannot merely refer to an ancient land with a predominantly stable population. No, to define America one must refer to the ideas and ideals on which it is based.

But are we trying to preserve these ideas and hand them down to the next generation? Or are we doing our best to eradicate these ideas from our collective memory? Are we attempting to induce national amnesia? Are we, in fact, performing a historectomy? That is, are we removing the basis of our nation?

When I went to grammar school a half-century ago, we saluted the flag every morning. We were taught patriotic songs for national holidays. And we enjoyed Christmas and Easter vacations, not winter and spring breaks. After all, the vast majority of Americans, and all of the founders, identified themselves as Christians.

In junior high, I was required to memorize the Gettysburg Address, the Preamble to the Constitution, and the first and fourth verses of "The Star-Spangled Banner." If you want to learn how a house is constructed, first study the foundation.

In high school, I was required to take American History and Civics, not merely "social studies." We learned about the great people and great events of our history, and (to a much lesser degree) some of the unhappy events. We learned how a bill becomes law, and what powers the president and the Supreme Court have.

But more than that, I loved movies. I saw "The Story of Alexander Graham Bell," inventor of the telephone. I saw "Sergeant York," the true story of how a pacifist farmer was convinced that violent evildoers had to be opposed by force, then went on to win the Medal of Honor. I saw "They Died With Their Boots On," a highly fictionalized account of General Custer, but at least I learned that he played a key role in the Civil War, which is more than today's kids know.

Later I saw "Boys' Town," the story of Father Flannagan's orphanage. And of course there was "The Fighting Sixty-Ninth," depicting Father Duffy's role in this New York unit's World War I exploits. So when I passed his statue in Times Square, I may have been the only one on the tour bus who knew who he was – not bad for a Jewish kid who grew up in San Francisco.

Then there were the John Ford films of the West, where the U.S. Army was depicted in a sympathetic (some might say overly sympathetic) light. I saw depictions of Abe Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson. I was being entertained at the movies, but I was also being exposed to my country's past.

Today's kids read history books and hear lectures that describe America's past as questionable at best, and evil or downright genocidal at worst.

Today's kids mumble a few of the words to the first verse of the National Anthem at sports events. Forget about the fourth verse, the one that mentions (gasp!) God.

Today's kids are taught that the founders were deists, not really Christians – that is, if religion is allowed to be mentioned at all.

Today's kids are lucky to place the Revolution or the Civil War in the right century, much less the right decade.

Today's kids identify Grant as the man on the $50 bill, not the man who led the Union to victory and thereby ended slavery.

Today's kids will not find Adm. Ernest King, our chief of naval operations in World War II, in the Encyclopedia Britannica. They will find jazz guitarist B.B. King. One doesn't need an encyclopedia for living musicians; one needs it to learn about heroes of the past who bequeathed us our freedom. But Adm. King has been excised, along with uncounted other significant figures of our past.

Today's kid's see movies depicting our leaders as scheming warmongers or even assassins (remember Oliver Stone's "JFK"?) and our military as sadistic morons and oppressors.

Today's kids see clergy depicted as idiots or molesters, if they see them at all, and religion shown as an oppressive and destructive force, if it is referred to in any way.

Today's kids, and even law students, are taught that the Constitution is a "living document." (Do you give it mouth-to-page respiration if it stops breathing?) That is, it has no fixed meaning, and means whatever a judge says it means today. In effect, kids are taught that we have no

Constitution. In short, the last generation of Americans has been taught little of the foundations of their country. And what they were taught was often negative. What they saw in movies only served to strengthen this negative impression.

No wonder they view America with ambivalence at best, and with open hostility at worst. Is John Walker an aberration, or just the tip of the iceberg? Only time will tell.

If you want to destroy a house, undermine the foundation. If you want to destroy a nation, do the same. If you want to debase people who are defined by ideas, destroy the ideas. If you want to bring down a society that is sustained by its history, perform a historectomy. But be aware that this can be a dangerous operation from which the patient may not recover.

See "Gramsci."

The last major addition was the invasion of the Franks, a Germanic tribe that settled northwestern France and gave the nation its name. This occurred roughly 1,500 years ago.

The Rand McNally Atlas of World History shows the Frankish Kindom in Southwest Franc and in the parts of spoin the became Aragon, Aquitane, and Castile.

Good post that doesn't EVEN begin to touch on the subject.
Our history is being changed, rewritten, and lied about and has been since the early 1900's.
The truth about the Civil War, WWI, the Federal Reserve, fdr, the Depression, WWII, McCarthy, Korea,
Vietnam, etc. doesn't get mentioned in school, although the info is out there for anyone that wants to dig.
And there is a reason for it.
It teaches citizens to be unquestioning government-led sheeple instead of independent Americans.

I can certainly relate to this post. During a sixth grade parent/teacher conference my son's teacher stated that he had not turned in his "Matthew Henson assignment". When I came home I asked my son why he hadn't turned in the assignment and, by the way, who is Matthew Henson (the muppet guy?). No, I was informed that he was the first explorer to reach the North Pole. Of course, I quickly informed my son that he was mistaken, that would be Admiral Peary. Well, it turns out that all of the kids in our school district are now being taught that Matthew Henson was the man who led Admiral Peary to the North Pole. Peary was there in a somewhat secondary role. I know you can all guess what race Matthew Henson was. I have now reeducated my son and all of his friends and it has become a standing joke within his group. One night we were all watching Jeopardy and the question was asked "Who was the first explorer to reach the North Pole". The show's writers having not been reeeducated under PC doctrine gave the correct answer as Admiral Peary. This, I am sure, came as quite a shock to a number of kids today.

You hit it. Ask your son if he knows who Crispus Attucks is....(hint, he's the first person killed in the Revolutionary War, and he was also black). I bet your son will ace it.

My American History class spent more time on Attucks, than on John Hancock, or Jefferson, or Thomas Paine. I was fortunate in that my dad is a history buff and 'finished' my education.

the public schools don't want to teach history; the people should fund alternative schools for their children; You can't dictate to the public school regime what their priorities will be, that doesn't work; you can only switch management regimes if you wish them to change their priorities; You want schools that bind our people together rather than divide us by ethnic origin, you want schools teach history, you must get a different management regime completely to do it; As long as politicians like Bush keep throwing money at the established education bureaucrats and managers, then nothing will change of substance.

"The Left that he snivels about is in service to the "idea" not the people they are expendable and their history is expendable."

I think you need to go back and read the post a little more critically. The ideas that are presented are not "liberal" ideas but the ideas that conservatism supposedly wants to "conserve."

The history of who a nation and it's people are is certainly not expendable if you believe in those ideas. If you are saying that the ideas traditionally held by our founding fathers and patriots are expendable then you must value them very little. It would then follow that there must be other beliefs such as communism, socialism, fascism or some other "ism" that you believe in.

What do you believe in? Pure democracy says that the majority is always right is not what our country was founded on and is a form that condones anything as long as enough agree and that nothing but blowing in the wind. Being blown this way and that with no real personal beliefs.

What did the old country song say? "If you don't believe in something, you will believe in anything."

Every single citizen who cares to preserve our country and our form of government needs to go to schools in their neighborhoods. Ask to review the history books. Get some veterans organization to help out. Put out a report showing how the books are inadequate for teaching kids respect and admiration for their own country. You will find many books openly promote socialism and communist ideals.

Make sure your report gets to the parents, take it to the school board and insist that the books be replaced with books that will teach kids things they ought to know about our history.

Take a survey. Does each class have an American flag in every room? I know that at our high school a large number of rooms don't.Many states have laws that flags must be present so you have the force of the law behind you when you tell the school they must place flags in the room. Sign up to be an observer one day. Sit in a class and see if the kids pledge. Find out exactly what they are doing in the classroom. You do not have to be a parent or a parent with a child in the classroom. Everyone has a right to review school materials, especially if you are a tax payer.

Encourage your school to bring in local veterans or the DAR or SAR to talk about our great history to the kids. They often bring in a perspective that teachers cannot. Make sure the curricula discusses the value of the Constitution and how important it is. Kids need to know that it is under assault every day and the kind of world that will result when the Consitution is made irrelevant is not one that anyone wants to live in.

Lets all stop talking and start doing! The communists realized early on that getting control of the schools was a major step in achieving the destruction of the US. We can't let them win!

So, my kid brother is 10. Goes to Central Park Elementary School (a public school, the same one I attended when I was younger) and takes a social studies class. Five Quick Questions for the boy:

Who was Thomas Jefferson? "The guy who wrote the Constitution".

Who was Robert Lee? "A Civil-War general".

What did Thomas Edison invent? "The lightbulb".

Who was Crispus Attucks? "Don't know".

Who was Paul Revere? "The guy who went around on a horse telling people that the Red-Coats were comming".

Not too shabby for a 4th grader. If he's to be used as the litmus-test, then the author of this article is being just a bit too alarmist. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have a hard time taking any writer who believes that John Ford films have a place in a history class seriously.

So far as I can tell they haven't been sending him home with Mao's "Little Red Book", and while some of the more horrific parts of history (such as the Holocaust or 1970's Cambodia) are glossed over, the text that he uses seems a balanced and fair summary of American history. The only downside seems to be that it's from 1993.

Clinton....shudder.

"First take away a country's history. Once the people begin to lose their sense of who they are as a people, then start a new movement to emphasize their Ethnic Origin, or "Diversity." Divide and conquer!"

"Isn't this very thing happening today? Open borders!! Aztlan!! Reconquista!! Amnesty!!"

Exactly! That is exactly what is happening now. At the risk of sounding like one of the Tin Foil Hat crowd- we are being set up for a U.N. takeover! Global Government is a reality, but there is no conspiracy behind it. The United Nations is out in the open about what it wants to do! FACT:The U.N. is trying to push Gun Control on a Global scale. FACT: The U.N. is trying to establish a Global Tax Base with contributions from all countries worldwide. FACT: The U.N. is trying to set up it's own Army. If you don't believe me, then check their web page. As U.S. Citizens we must ask ourselves where is it all going? What are the motives behind these actions on the part of the United Nations?

if they even teach history in that school, then that's good. Normally when they teach it they do so in an incompetent manner that turns the kids off. Also, there is information I've read that indicates throughout most public schools history is not really taught anywhere near as well as it was taught decades ago. The children really are growing up ignorant.

They are instead being taught what the author said that American history shows a bad people who did bad things. They are being divided by ethnic group and taught alienation rather than binded together as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and MLK wanted them to be. The people in charge of our schools are not dealing with our society in good faith. They should be replaced. If the parents are allowed a choice as to what schools their kids go to, then they will be replaced.

The author said that the John Ford films helped to bind the nation together. He viewed them outside of school, he was not advocating that they be a part of school.

The War of Independence began in either 1775 or 1776, depending on whether you date it from Lexington and Concord or from the Declaration of Independence. The first rebel casualty thus occurred on Lexington Common, but since he was a heterosexual Protestant White Guy who owned a gun, nobody appears to remember his name.

Crispus Attucks was killed in 1770. In a foretaste of things to come, he was part of a mob that was throwing snowballs and rocks and British sentries in Boston. The British sentries responded with bullets. They were put on trial, defended by John Adams, and acquitted. Had reverends Sharpton & Jackson been there, Boston would have erupted in mahyem and looting.

The elevation of Crispus Attucks to civic sainthood was one of the earliest blows delivered on behalf of Political Correctness in its campgaign to re-invent America's identity. How far we've come since then! Not only are "bit players" elevated into major roles, but they are "airbrushed" into the historical record -- as demonstrated by the current controversy over the FDNY memorial in NYC.

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