…the end of Nancy Pelosi’s reign as speaker! Also in Congress, yesterday, they read the US Constitution. Or, part of it at least. The Constitution was read, without some major amendments, such as the 18th (Prohibition) and the 3/5 Compromise of 1787, declaring slaves would be counted as 3/5 of a person for apportionment of Senators and Representatives and enumeration purposes. Here is a full list of some of the major statements left out of the Constitution’s reading; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/06/AR2011010603759_2.html?sid=ST2011010603624 (note: there are two pages). It surprised me to learn that this was the first time the Constitution had ever been read in Congress (ironic…if it weren’t for that document, there wouldn’t even BE a Congress).
Were these crucial pieces left out because they could be considered “offensive” or was it just incompetence already rearing its ugly head again? I’m personally offended that these parts of the document were left out in the first place. This document, in its entirety, is what gives congressmen and women their JOBS. They swear to uphold it’s every word. It is history, and I think that history is something that ALL Americans, especially those in CONGRESS, need to be reminded of. If the reading of the Three-fifths Clause was left out for fear it would offend someone…that clause is history. They were mistakes in our past that were righted; Prohibition was revoked, and slavery abolished. The Constitution is often called a “living document” as it is amended as time goes on…I would think that if you’re going to read the Constitution and gain something from it—and especially if you’re CONGRESS—the document in its entirety should be read to see these changes over time, and how far we as a nation have come. Are grade school kids not going to be taught of the darkest days of our nation’s history simply because they’re unpleasant? Are grade school kids even taught about the Constitution anymore? Now that I think of it I wasn’t subject to an “in-depth” study of the Constitution until sophomore year of high school…and even then the mandatory American Government class left MUCH to be desired in the way of learning about our nation’s governing bodies. Choosing not to remember is a good way to forget the lessons learned from such mistakes. Our nation has its scars—it’s horrible, horrible scars that counted a human being as only 3/5 of a person; it was not right, but it happened. It’s history. It was resolved, and our nation finally lived up to the phrase, “all men created equal” under God. Forgetting the lessons learned from our history is a sure way that such mistakes will be repeated in the future. If we do not learn from the past, our present will be turmoil and our future even more so. Essentially, if we forget what and where we came from, we forget WHO WE ARE.
http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_17031461?source=rss
This brings me to another point, one that was briefly discussed in one of my AP classes at school…the censoring of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. Alan Gribben, a professor at Auburn University is “revising” Twain’s classic by replacing the n-word (used 219 times in the text) with “slave”, “injun” with “Indian”, and “half-breed” with “half-blood.” I know a certain English teacher who was particularly outraged with this… it’s surprising how alterations to already published and copyrighted text are even legal. Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn; those are his words, his ideas, his message to society, who is Alan Gribben and others on the “politically correct” side to change that? In an interview, Gribben said, “Race matters in these books. It’s a matter of how you express it in the 21st century.” Well, that’s just fine…go write your own masterpiece, comparable in theme and literary richness to Huck Finn, and express race in a 21st century way, because it will be published IN the 21st century. Mark Twain’s Huck Finn was not published IN the 21st century but in the late 1800’s, so it would not express things such as race in the same way we do today. Like I said above about the reading of the Constitution, it’s HISTORY. Yes, using the n-word in such capacity was and is degrading and unspeakably disrespectful, but Twain wrote the novel using that word to convey WHY it was wrong. Without the language of the time, Huck Finn won’t cause kids to ask WHY. Cleaning up the language will not allow kids to see the mistakes of the past, how they were righted, and how Twain used his literary talent to satirize the practice of slavery.
Turn on the radio to any local rap station. Listen for ten, fifteen minutes, and count many times you hear the n-word or other words that could be considered offensive. Now how many kids who are not “allowed” to read Huck Finn, or who will end up with a censored version, listen to that sort of music or music with comparable lyrics after school? On the radio, it’s called “art.” But in the case of Huck Finn, it’s considered offensive and politically incorrect.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/censored-new-version-of-huckleberry-fin-erases-injun-and-n-word/
Two different but still similar situations with the Constitution and Huck Finn…important pieces being left out that carry irreplaceable meaning. Again, without the mistakes, the horrors, the scars of the past, what guide do we have to the future? If we forget what and where we came from, we forget WHO WE ARE.
This makes me think of a comment by Michelle Obama over two years ago… “[Barack knows that] we are going to have to make sacrifices; we are going to have to change our conversation; we're going to have to change our traditions, our history; we're going to have to move into a different place as a nation."
I have a big problem with everything stated in this sentence, but for now I just want to focus on one part; change our history? Just how, I ask, do you “change” history? You can’t rewind time and change how things happened, how things played out. But you can rewrite the history books as to how you see fit. You can twist and transform people’s perception of the past—that is, people who are too blind and gullible, or people who simply do not care, to not learn history on their own…I think that is what’s happening here. There are many, many unpleasant things that have occurred in our history, and the world’s. But that gives us all the more reason to learn everything we can about those events, so as to not let that mistake happen again.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,580414,00.html
I have a few quotes that coincide quite well with the topic of this blog post...
"The happy union of these states is a wonder; their Constitution is a miracle; their example of the hope and liberty throughout the world. Woe to the ambition that would meditate the destruction of either!" -James Madison
“The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.” –Winston Churchill
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”-Ronald Reagan
As always, thanks for reading…comments are welcome. And lastly, two quotes I found that have great validity to the situation we find ourselves in today…
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.
“If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.” –Ronald Reagan
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