Making Friends
6 Aug
For some reason the more free time I have, the less I actually blog. Makes no sense at all to me, I guess I just get lazy and become very inefficient. Last week however, I mustered up the energy to go on a bike ride toward Fort Geene Park for some R & R.
It was a pretty short ride, only about 4 miles each way. Unfortunately I got a flat on my way there. Lucky for me there are a million awesome bike shops in Brooklyn so I was able to get it repaired immediately.
On my way back from my lovely ride I was honked at by some inconsiderate and ignorant to rules of the road driver. I expressed my feelings about them honking their horn at me both physically and with my words. Drivers, be kind to bike riders, we are vehicles on the road too.
While at the park I continued reading the book Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James Loewen. The title basically summarizes the book but here is a bit more detailed description of it’s context.
After surveying twelve leading high school American history texts, he has concluded that not one does a decent job of making history interesting or memorable. Marred by an embarrassing combination of blind patriotism, mindless optimism, sheer misinformation, and outright lies, these books omit almost all the ambiguity, passion, conflict, and drama from our past. In ten powerful chapters, Loewen reveals that:
- The United States dropped three times as many tons of explosives in Vietman as it dropped in all theaters of World War II, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- Ponce de Leon went to Florida mainly to capture Native Americans as slaves for Hispaniola, not to find the mythical fountain of youth
- Woodrow Wilson, known as a progressive leader, was in fact a white supremacist who personally vetoed a clause on racial equality in the Covenant of the League of Nations
- The first colony to legalize slavery was not Virginia but Massachusetts
From the truth about Columbus’s historic voyages to an honest evaluation of our national leaders, Loewen revives our history, restoring to it the vitality and relevance it truly possesses.
For someone who has always struggled with enjoying and believing the history I was taught in high school, I am really digging this book.
While at the park, I also managed to make a new friend by sharing some of my food. Check him out, he was quite brave and adorable.
In any case, I am back to training for this week. I am pretty excited because we are getting into some content specific workshops which for me means PHYSICS!!!
