I’ve been on a wonderful trip with our in-laws through Pennsylvania. Gettysburg. Lancaster. Philadelphia.
As I’ve taken this trip, especially in Lancaster, PA, where James Buchanan and Thaddeus Stevens both resided, I’ve learned all over again it’s not about history.
It is histories. We don’t get the the whole story a lot of the time when we concentrate on one particular storyline. It is vital to keep digging throughout life to keep learning from as many voices as possible.
It is histories.
The past few days have been what I call “History Geek Week” for me. We have gone on a fantastic historical tour of Pennsylvania with my in-laws. One I’ve always wanted to do and this was a great opportunity.
The first two days in Pennsylvania were spent in Gettysburg, then Lancaster area. Gettysburg is a place to be studied. It is to be pondered. It is a place to sit and wonder.
Read moreFor me, growing up in a conservative Christian environment and coming into voting age in the “Reagan Revolution” this is what I knew: It’s all about abortion. It’s all about being pro-life.
Then, the narrator off to the side (who I didn’t hear at the time and wished to GOD he had been just a little louder) whispered: “It wasn’t about abortion at all.”
Read moreThis counts for so little, I know. But, in some dusty corner of the internet bin one day, may this record stand.
The House hearing on the January 6 INSURRECTION is starting and this is the written testimony of one of the Capitol Police Officers. HERE.
I won’t repost one of the more heartbreaking parts because of the use of the “N” word.
I will say this here and now… again: The current derisive use among white conservative Christians of the words “CRT” and “woke” are the new “N” word. In the past week I’ve heard two Christian men I clearly admire say those words with derision and lack of understanding and I’m pissed.
This will sit in a dusty corner of the interwebs. I know. But… let it be there for someone to maybe find generations from now.
While the violence in Tulsa was stunning, American history is littered with examples of street battles, racist uprisings, and mass killings. The history of the 1898 Wilmington, North Carolina, massacre and coup, in which a racist mob overthrew the city government, is its own category of chilling. So is the Rosewood Massacre. The list goes on.
It is not “hating America” to acknowledge this is part of our story. It is not unpatriotic to understand that much of our present reality exists because the legacy of past atrocities does not fade as quickly as their memory.
More HERE.
The new boogey man of current culture wars, because we always need culture wars to keep winning elections, is Critical Race Theory. If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry about. Take comfort in this: neither does your state legislature and THEY want to ban it in classrooms. (NOTE: This is referring to Republican controlled legislatures.)
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For the first time in years I have kept a paper calendar (more as a diary) consistently. I let it be a place I recorded what I did rather than things to do. So, I took a look back.
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