There's been a lot of talk lately about what it means to love America and how we teach this nation's history to our children. A very vocal and growing movement in this country (I'm looking at you Texas and Oklahoma) wants our history text books to only teach "the good parts" of our past. That's not history. That's indoctrination. It's not real love, either. Only loving America for her exceptionalism is like being a man who only loves his wife as long as she's thin and under 30. It's shallow. Teaching the history of this country without confronting and discussing our mistakes is like watching the movie "Rocky" without the training scenes. It's like watching "The Karate Kid" if the whole movie was nothing but the tournament.
"What's so special about that LaRusso kid?" "I don't know, he just IS!"
Nobody wants to read a story about somebody who wins every single time. Why do you think so many people hate the New York Yankees? Learning about our failures as a nation only makes our victories sweeter. I was lucky enough to have a teacher in middle school who made history real and didn't shy away from the darker passages of our growth as a nation. It didn't make me love my country any less, either. It was inspiring to think of our founding fathers as men who put their pantaloons on one leg at a time like the rest of us. They weren't extraordinarily super-human. They were real humans who did extraordinary things. They also made mistakes just like the rest of us and did a lot of things that were just down right wrong. You know how many women, African-Americans, and Native Americans voted for George Washington? None. Because they didn't have the right.
We are blessed as a nation to have the words and thoughts of our founders preserved and available to be read and studied. From letters written by soldiers in the Revolutionary War to battlefield diaries kept during the Civil War, our history is still alive and it's all there for anyone who cares to read it for themselves and not just take political pundits' word for it. There are those that will disagree with me. They're the ones who think that their view of America and her history is the only one with any legitimacy. They bristle and get indignant when anyone dares to bring up something that doesn't paint America as a picture of perfection. I say, let our kids learn everything they can about our history and make up their own minds. Hey, they might even grow up to have some pretty good ideas. That tends to happen when you don't force feed 'em, and instead teach 'em to think for themselves.
In the grand scheme of things, America is still a very young country. Imagine that it's a child and we're all it's parents. Do we want to raise a child that is called out when it does something wrong. A child that learns from it's mistakes and grows into a mature, intelligent adult that is strong when it has to be, yet is still capable of empathy and compassion? Or do we keep telling the kid it's perfect and special and never does anything wrong and spend the rest of our lives apologizing for raising up a spoiled brat and a bully?
Luke Williams was born and raised in western Kentucky. He decided to pursue a career in radio after his mamma told him that out of all her kids, he was the one that could "talk real good." In addition to radio, Luke has also worked in a boot store and a hardware store, so he can offer knowledgeable advice on insoles and hammers. You can hear Luke every afternoon on 93.3FM, WKYQ.
