Changing History

History changes. It does. At least in two ways.

First, change is a constant. We live with it. The tree out our window remains in place, but it grows. And grows some more. From a young sapling it grows into a mighty oak, or fir, or maple. Big it becomes. Shades lawns and entire homes. Provides a bower of leaves overhead to soften the sunlight, rains and so much more. It even breaks up the wind, softens its impact on us as people, but also our houses and buildings.

Until they become so large they become unable to withstand the onslaught of wind, snow, rain and age. They crumble before us. They cease living and growing.

All the while, the tree was in one place but truly never the same. It changed moment by moment.

Just like you and I. We begin as babies pooping and peeing on ourselves, and hopefully many years later end up the same, only larger. We age. We grow. We become different persons in many phases of life. We age more and eventually die. It is a cycle of forever.

That is change. Our story is in constant motion.

That also means our story must change. Its meaning shifts to include more details, more meaning, more cause, effect, and result. What we thought something meant one day, means something else, more and different than before.

Teaching history is teaching process of reason, not facts.

One day we learn something that causes us to compare it with what we learned, what we came to understand earlier. Suddenly the meaning has changed. It is not what we thought. It is something larger. It is the change that helps us understand, and to continue to understand even more.

Critical thinking is a process. It requires us to ask questions of what and why, cause, effect, and result. The more we know, the better our understanding. Critical thinking is a tool that uncovers much truth primarily because it asks questions we did not think of before or were too uncomfortable asking.

Race in America is just one topic that grants us better understanding of long ago events. So much of what we know today was not reported before. We begin to see. We begin to ask. We begin to understand.

Tulsa race riot and total destruction of a vast and valuable Black community? Was that reported to me in school when I was a youngster? No. It was not. How much of post-Civil War reconstruction was taught to our classes back then that explained the policy was to keep slaves enslaved in poverty, servitude under the control of whites? Not explained to me. Not shared. No critical thinking asked for or applied.

When American history is brought under the critical thinking microscope, we perceive a broad, pernicious White Supremacy value structure imposed over all of the nation. It was accepted without much thinking. Most whites went along without examining it. It became second nature. We were inured to it. When asked if all people are equal, of course we said yes. Deep down, however, that was not true as a societal norm. This is so true we did not recognize the dichotomy.

One day we did notice. One day we awaken to the reality of something we had hidden for generations, hundreds of years.

This is not changing history. This is uncovering it. Best we continue doing so. We would not want future generations to be as uninformed as we.

Or do we?

July 8, 2021