On the other hand, the way I explain the history

NPR guides us through a multi-cultural, liberal celebration of Thanksgiving.  My favorite part is this:

There is evidence, in the form of a colonist’s letter, to suggest the feast did happen, but the holiday didn’t take off nationally until the civil war, when writer Sarah Hale advocated for it as a way to unite the country.

Evidence in the form of colonist’s letters?  Of course.  We’ve always known that.  And what other sources, pray tell, do we have to suggest otherwise?  Plus, I learned that in fifth grade in the 1970s.  That’s what I call the Myth of Myths.  When you insist we need to teach people that Columbus didn’t set out to prove the world is round even though I’m not sure any lesson in our schools has taught that – at all.  I collect old history textbooks, some dating back to the late 30s, and I have yet to find a lesson teaching that Columbus was out to prove the world is round.  One of the things that makes me distrust a movement: advocating remedies for symptoms or diseases that don’t exist.

The rest of the piece is basically anything that will involve avoiding the basis for the story as it exists in the United States.  Still yearning for that post-national age of a world order, the focus is instead on any other culture, or on issues advocated by certain political parties and philosophies.  Of course the line between education and indoctrination has always been rather thin.  The problem today is that while many have declared that the ‘culture wars were won’, there appears to be many pockets of resistance needing mopped up (hence November 8).  While that happens, expect things like this to bring less harmony and unity as much as divisiveness and disunity.  Especially if focusing on some things – like other cultures – is done to the exclusion of others – like the heritage of the United States, its unique story, and the influence and contributions of the Christian West.

For those who say ‘we need the truth’, how about this:  A diverse and rich civilization made of up different people united by a few cultural distinctives fought over how to deal with a new wave of immigrants coming to their shores.  Some sought to welcome them and make peace and forge treaties against other native factions, others tried to stop them, even violently and with much killing.  Eventually the immigrants overwhelmed the struggling civilization, forcing them out of their positions of privilege and completely altering the social structures and norms of the lands the natives once dominated.  The same thing was happening in Europe, by the way.  It’s just in that case, the natives won.  At least temporarily.  That’s how I explain it.