I had been meaning to let this go, but it has been on my mind as a microcosm of the political events of recent times and wanted to put it to discussion.
Recently Sarah Palin, embarrassed herself with her Paul Revere revisionism. Everyone makes mistakes, and there are many many stories both fact and fiction of our Founding Fathers so its not out of the ordinary to get these stories wrong(Just ask Bob \"the bozo\" Basso). However instead of Sarah Palin claiming “Mea Culpa” and correcting the record the Pailinites, came out in force. Not only did Sarah Palin claim she was correct(she wasn\'t), but also her supporters went crazy trying to defend her. They even keep trying to change Wikipedia to match the Palin version of history.
FYI here is an article by historian and Harvard Professor Jill Lepore, which includes actual letters from Paul Revere himself. There is no mention of ringing bells in warning; no warning of the British, rebellious or not.
Now bringing this back to a local level, Local columnist Sunny Schubert recently addressed this matter, and to no one’s surprise took the side of the Palin fantasy. She used a column by LA Times right wing columnist and birther Andrew Malcolm as her “proof”.
Well, I was not going to write about the latest Sarah Palin flap because I am not a Palin fan. However, my inbox is filling up with e-mails from gleeful Palin haters pointing out her most recent gaffe – in which she said that Paul Revere warned the British that the Americans were coming, instead of the other way around – and while I may not like Palin, I am rather fond of truth.
And Palin had the truth on her side.
Political commentator Andrew Malcolm of the Los Angeles Times wrote: “You may have heard recently something about that Sarah Palin telling a reporter that Paul Revere warned the British on his famous rousing revolutionary ride.
“Now, that so many Americans have wallowed in their smug confirmation that Palin is an idiot unqualified for anything but repeating sixth-grade history, how far, wide and fast do you think the contradictory news will spread that the former governor of Alaska was indeed correct?
“That the Republican non-candidate, in fact, knew more about the actual facts of Revere’s midnight ride than all those idiots unknowingly revealing their own ignorance by laughing at her faux faux pas? How secretly embarrassing this must be, to be forced to face that you’re dumber than the reputed dummy,” Malcolm wrote.
“The well-known fable is that Revere’s late-night ride was to warn fellow revolutionaries that… the British were coming. Less known, obviously, is the rest of the evening’s events in which Revere was captured by said redcoats and did indeed defiantly warn them of the awakened militia awaiting their arrival ahead and of the American Revolution’s inevitable victory.”
Sunny Schubert herself is on record as saying this:
“I do believe that teachers unions are the single biggest impediment to improving our school system.”
I was thinking as I was mowing my yard today, maybe the best gift we can give our kids is to NOT rewrite history to suit our purposes. Maybe we should expect more from politicians AND the media. Since our media have the privilege of a public forum for all to read they should have to take on the responsibility of having to research and fact-check? Maybe we should stop thinking that politicians who are not very intelligent or intellectually curious are not “like us”, and understand when they then do a terrible job when elected. Or Maybe we should make teaching the facts of the Founding Fathers and the American Revolution in our high schools MANDATORY so we know where and how the great country actually came into being. Our children deserve it!
The budget brouhaha and the shockingly uninformed commentary about the how the legislature works and role of the judiciary in public life make me think that Civics should also be taught. Now I had civics in 9th grade. Perhaps that’s the wrong time for the class. Maybe a class is the wrong approach. But it is clear that quite a few people do not understand much of anything about law, legislation, and how such will affect them. We’ve got some teachin’ and larnin’ to do!
First we should make sure the politicians and media get it, then start working on others!