#history

THANKFUL FOR HISTORY

 

Today I’m thankful for history…

Understanding the history of what makes us great should be taught

as well as the history that does not 

 

For that is the job of history…

what history intends for us to do…

To learn not only from our successes…

but from our failures and atrocities…too

 

When we erase or alter history

When the true facts we dispel….

When we pick and choose what we want to teach

We make history an atrocity as well.

 

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THANKFUL FOR ACCURATE HISTORY AND MAYA ANGELOU

 

May we be blessed to acknowledge all the wonders in our life

that have, for us, thus far accrued…

and to begin each day with a word of thanks…

and thoughts of gratitude.

 

Today I’m thankful for history…

when it’s an honest unobstructed view

and for the poetry and wisdom

of Maya Angelou

 

Who hoped for the day…

as I do

when we are blessed to see

Native American 

and black history 

taught from one book…

An honest and accurate book on U. S. history.

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WHY HISTORY IS IMPORTANT

 

I was born with skin the color beige…yet people say I’m white…

I’ve never understood why people can’t get my color right.

 

I did not know when I was placed into my warm, soft baby bed

that I wold have more privileges than if I was black, brown, yellow or red.

 

I was just a baby…I had only experienced a few setting suns…

I did not know, yet, just because of the color of my skin…I was a lucky one.

 

As I grew older and observed and studied…I began to understand

how atrociously we treated the Native Americans…how we threw them off the land.

 

How we took their children from their Mom’s and dads…we didn’t care if they made a fuss….

and sent them to cruel, inhumane schools…to make them more like us.

 

How we enslaved generations of people…people who we never intended to be freed

so they could do our bidding…and fuel our insatiable greed.

 

How we used whips, confined them in chains…knowing they could not escape them…

How we thought of them as less than human…making it easier to beat and rape them.

 

How, after Pearl Harbor, we gathered up entire families…children, Dads and Moms

anyone who looked like those who flew the planes and dropped the bombs.

 

These were own citizens…on whose rights and freedoms we so easily tramped…

How, out of fear and ignorance we sent them off to distant internment camps.

 

But these were horrors imposed on other people of other colors and not directly on to me…. 

so I had to learn the bitter truth by studying history.

 

Now I see there are people…people who mostly look like me, 

who want to whitewash what we’ve done…to erase this history.

 

Please don’t let them do it…

 

If not for the people we have harmed…for our country’s sake…

for it is only by studying our history that we can learn from our mistakes.

 

So every future child born, not just those who look like me…

after not too many more setting suns…

will be able to feel, as I did, 

that they too…are the lucky ones.

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THE HISTORY WE ARE WRITING

 

THE HISTORY WE ARE WRITING

 

The history of America…if America it going to last

must be told in chapters that include true stories of our past.

 

Each chapter must be fair and honest when retelling our history

containing stories of our joys and triumphs 

while pointing out our mistakes and inhumanities.

 

Our history should be truthful and impartial with each chapter it addresses….

because we learn more from our mistakes then we do from our successes. 

 

We should read chapters about people who didn’t look like us

who we never tried to understand….

who we wanted to eradicate…from the surface of this land.

 

We should read chapters about people who were enslaved…

how babies were stripped from their parents’s arms

without thinking of the the consequences and the everlasting harm.

 

We should read chapters about how ignorance and fear can act like a disease…

causing us to treat our friends and neighbors…like villains and enemies.

 

So I come to this Independence Day with mixed emotions…

in the 247 years since it was born…

America’s triumphs I will celebrate….

while our inhumanities I will mourn.

 

I hope and pray when we look at our true history

our triumphs and inhumanities we will always be highlighting… 

that we find our inhumanities as appalling 

as we find our victories exciting.

 

For that is the only way our country has a hope of one day coming together…of uniting…

The only way to change the course 

of the history…we are writing

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TO THE NEXT AND FUTURE GENERATIONS

 

 

If a country of love, generosity and acceptance is something you wish to create….

It is imperative you learn not only about our strengths as a people

but that you also understand our hate.

 

Don’t let anyone erase or re-write our history…your history

don’t listen to an untrue, distorted point of view…

It is important that you realize not only all the good that we have done

but also…all the things our hate can do.

 

How hate can disguise itself as love…can even be sung as a religious chorus…

How hate attempted to wipe out the entire culture of the people who were on this land before us.

 

How our hate enslaved a people…allowed us to treat them like animals, rape their women and take their children away…

and ignore the fact they are still experiencing scars and pain today.

 

How at one time we thought of women as inferior….

"You had no rights!” the men would gloat…

How it wasn’t until 1920 they were allowed to vote.

 

How our hate allows us to see a man who likes to dress up as a woman….

or a person who is a lesbian or queer…

then tell the world these loving people…are people to be feared

 

You will find people who will ban books and try to promote their view of history….

who think only the highlights of our past are all that you should see.

 

Read the banned books!…

Seek out the true history!…yes, be a history sleuth….

In the words of Ida B. Wells:

The only way to right our wrongs…is through the light of truth.

 

So we look to you our future generations……do not be afraid…

to take a good look at our history…and correct the mistakes we’ve made…

 

To confront then eliminate the hate that throughout our history has swirled…

and help America become what it has always hoped it would be…

the greatest country the world.

 

 

Love,

 

The past generations

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OUR STORY

 

 

It’s the study of our past, 

the entirety of events that made us who we’ve come to be…

but I’ve come to think we made a mistake by calling it ‘History’.

 

History is not only the good…but the bad we’ve done…

for there is a lesson to be learned from each…

and no one person or group 

should get to pick and choose which history we teach.

 

When men and women choose to omit from our history books 

events they don’t want us to know…

how will we ever learn from our mistakes…

how will we ever grow?

 

When a man chronicling past events 

decides to omit parts because he has the power…

essentially what we’re learning is his rendition of the past…

His story…not ours

 

And history should not just be his story…

it’s your story, it’s her story, it’s their story…it’s mine…

It’s everything experienced by everyone…

since the dawn of time.

 

Our history is not only filled with triumphs and joy…

it’s filled with sorrow, abuses and fear…

These should also be taught 

even though….NO precisely because…they are so hard to hear.

 

If we don’t teach how onto our fellow humans 

we’ve inflicted pain, suffering and heartbreak

there is a real possibility (just look around!) 

future generations will make the same mistakes.

 

So, I think we should change the name from His-story to Our-story

The story of our country…

every group…

every religion…

every person…

every race…

not the way some think it should be taught…

but what actually took place

 

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I AM

I am history you insidious people!

by definition I have happened and I have passed.

You cannot erase my memories…for my influence is vast.

 

People know what happened! 

Your attempts to ignore me is barbaric and misbegotten.

People know what happened!…and people talk…

therefore…I shall never be forgotten.

 

I am books you ignorant people!

I am written to make you think, to make you angry…to inspire.

Any attempt to burn or ban me will ultimately backfire.

 

People will remember words they’ve read.

Your attempts to remove them is barbaric and misbegotten.

My words will be re-written…therefore…they shall never be forgotten.

 

I am free speech you fools!

I originate in the minds of people from the East, West, North and South.

Do you think you can stop my mind from thinking just because you close my mouth?

 

Your attempts to take away my speech is barbaric and misbegotten.

Because I refuse to wear your muzzle…hence…my words will never be forgotten.

 

Yes…I am history, I am books, I am free speech!

Your attempts to ignore me…to ban me…to silence me…

will always be barbaric and misbegotten.

Because…In spite of these attempts I shall endure…

and I shall be remembered……

long after you have been forgotten.

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HISTORY

 

The Greek word is Historia…we call it history…it’s the seeking of knowledge and the knowledge gained from that inquiry.

 

It has been mostly men who have transcribed history…as a general rule…which has allowed their version of history to be the one we learn in school.

 

But man…any man…has a tendency, when it comes to writing his story…his verse…to make himself look better than he is…and everyone else look worse.

 

Which means the history we learn in school…by human nature is misguided…missing certain facts and truths…it tends to be one-sided.

 

But…as we gain knowledge…as our minds open…as we learn what really happened…as truer stories are told…we realize how this more accurate version of history…differs from the old.

 

We now know throughout our country’s history many injustices have been scattered…we know how badly the Native American, the Japanese and women have been treated….we know what lead to Black lives matter.

 

There are some, however who don’t want the truth to be taught…they are indignant…bitter and mad…they want our children to learn of our good…while completely ignoring our bad.

 

I feel these people have forgotten the true meaning of the word history…have forgotten how the good and the bad we all must see…

how else can we ever gain knowledge from our inquiry?

 

It isn’t always comfortable to look at our mistakes…

but our injustices, our abuses, our inequalities we need to know…

for unless we also look at our worse behaviors…

how can we ever grow?

 

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SOME STORIES MUST BE HEARD

 

Over time in the history of a people their recollections tend to become a little fuzzy…their memories a little blurred…which is why when we teach history every story must be heard.

 

What if you’re peacefully living in your house…life is wonderful as you perceive it…and one day someone says I want your house and your land…you’re going to have to leave it.

 

What if you say, “NO”…what if you fight to keep your land and the house you’re living in…what if you are called a savage…and what if it’s a fight you cannot win.

 

What if they move you to a place where the land is barren and dry…and what if their diseases, the war and the difficulty of your move cause many of you to die.

 

What if the government came to those of you still living…and without giving you a say…callously…without warning…took your children…took the future of your family away.

 

Far away to a school where they cut their beautiful hair…where they forbade them speak their beautiful language…where they were frightened and confused…where they tried to extinguish who they were…where they were beaten and abused.

 

What if you never saw your children again…never knowing what happened…never knowing if they survived…wondering if your children were some of those in that far away school who died,

 

What if these stories are lost to history because as a general rule you won’t find them in our history books…or being taught within our schools.

 

Because there are people who don’t want this history taught…who would rather these pages of history remain black…who do not care if you ever get your culture or your language back.

 

But you know if all lives truly matter you must be brave…you must be bold…and these stories no matter how horrific they are to hear…are stories that must be told.

 

They must be taught and discussed in homes and schools…for isn’t it absurd…to think we could evolve as humans…as a people…without these stories being heard.

 
 
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