If you read my blog, you know that I tend to explore both sides of an issue before making a decision. There are a few things, though, that I am firmly against. There is a definitive phrase that is drawing my ire and it is called historical revisionism. From rewriting Mark Twain to the current recommendation to remove slavery from history books, there is no shortage of desired changes. Critics who’ve come out against such revisions are purported to cause controversy as if rewriting textbooks to avoid mentioning awful acts in human history was a rational thought in the first place.

Editing certain pieces of information to paint a particular group in a better light is not a *new* phenomenon. Ever since human beings have been able to depict events into words, pictures, and song, there have been those who have sought to revise or edit what really happened. The historical record is, in a way, its own truth that will never be precise — but it will be accurate. Cultural attitudes that appall you or I today were common in that era or decade. Regardless of how we feel about it, that is the way it was. Our ability to record and archive information is relatively new, so we experience micro-trends like we have never been able to before. We sometimes can’t see the big picture because we’re too heavily focused on the details, but make no mistake — we are a living, breathing part of a historical record not just on a day-to-day basis, but from second-to-second.

There are times when the historical record is inaccurate or has some amount of bias. When I say “viking” what immediately jumps to your mind? Stereotypes and attitudes are greatly affected by literacy. The reason why many less-developed cultures are treated with disdain is because their frame-of-reference is completely and totally different. Read Who were the Vikings? as one of many examples. Writing words is separate from painting, composing songs, telling stories, or drawing glyphs about an event. The lack of literacy doesn’t mean that culture was “dumb.” It simply translates to different people doing different things in different ways. I get my food by going to the grocery store whereas someone else might hunt, skin, preserve, and clean their dinners. To that person? I probably look like an idiot because I couldn’t track a deer. Would I be offended? Maybe, maybe not. Say I was a vegetarian. Sure, I probably would be upset by learning about how other people find food. Would I want someone to edit out their way of life? No, because that’s them and this is me.

I take specific issue with glossing over bad things that happened and moreso when it comes to the treatment of slaves or Native Americans. These two things in particular are what helped me moved past some terrible attitudes I had when I was younger. Diversity was rare where I grew up and I recognized I had a problem. I leveraged my time at UW-Madison to work through many of those issues and this served as the foundation for (what I hope to be) a more balanced approach to understanding other people and cultures. Besides poring through books and exploring other experiences in college, I also scoured court records from 1686 up until the American Revolution for a year-long Honors Class reviewing how Native Americans were treated. I was fascinated by what I found because I was reading events in sequential order as they happened rather than from analyses that pinpointed specific events that spanned centuries.

Slavery is outside of our understanding and modern sensibilities. However, the practice didn’t just exist in this country — it went on for thousands of years and it’s still happening in some parts of the world today. It is ingrained into the American culture in a myriad of ways and it does no one any good to water down the capture and sale of human beings for profit. Yes, slavery did happen in this country and yes, we are *still* feeling its effects today and no, we have a *long* way to go before we’ll achieve equality of any sort. In order to treat every culture the same, we have to work on our empathy and respect for one another even in cases where we do not agree with someone else’s choices.

What appalls me, is that we’d revise history because of how we feel about it. It seems like some worry about a phantom person we’d offend, how people will think about our founding fathers, or how we’re not equipped to deal with racial tension. This can easily be rectified by one word: EDUCATION. Use books as they were written to teach kids something rather than omit it from their “precious” eyes. That is the only way we can ensure these atrocities never, ever happen again. Yes, kids are young and naive. This is why we have good educators and parents!

Mood: Hazy
Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: Still waiting for something to kick in.
Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: Rolled my eyes a lot. Sheesh. Should do something today.
Yesterday’s Projects: Game, Short Story
In My Ears: Nothing
Game Last Played: Final Fantasy XIII
Movie Last Viewed: Ironclad
Book Last Read: Broken Blade by Kelly McCullough
Latest Artistic Project: Crystal cluster bracelet in silver
Latest Release: Strange, Dead Love for Vampire: the Requiem