I was not a history major in college. And when I was required to take a history course to fulfill credits, I usually selected some version of United States history. Back then, it didn’t interest me as it does now.
And let’s face it. There is a LOT of history. I mean, the planet is 4.543 billion years old, unless you are using bible math. Then it is only 6,000 years old, which, of course, is just wrong. There is proof of one of the earliest known humans, that guy Homo habilis, or “handy man,” who lived about 2.4 million to 1.4 million years ago in Eastern and Southern Africa. There were “handy women” too. That’s how it works, you know.
What I’m getting around to is this. Either way you look at it — the age of the earth or the age of man — a lot has transpired. So the subject of history is jammed packed to the gills. And, no mattered how studied a person is in the field of history, they cannot possibly know every bit of it. Although, I am certain some people have an incredibly wide girth of knowledge in the field.
Despite this, the things we learned as kids were often misleading or all-out wrong. The one that always stands out, to me, is the story of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree, and the famous old line, “I cannot tell a lie.” It stands out in everyone’s memory, I think. We know now, the tale never happened at all. It was Washington’s first biographer, a fellow named Mason Locke Meems, who wrote that little blurb of fiction in his book, “The Life of Washington.” And then, another writer, William Homes McGuffey, repeated the story in his children’s reader.
Isn’t it ironic that the story says Washington couldn’t tell a lie, yet we have been telling one about him for 250 years?
There are others, too.
The first Thanksgiving Feast was not about peace and harmony between the whites and the Indians. In fact, it was the exact opposite. Presidents throughout history have promoted the celebration of a happily united meal between the Pilgrims and Indians. But the truth is quite different. In 1636, a murdered man was discovered lying in a boat in Plymouth. Whether he was found in the water or onshore, I am not sure. Regardless, English Major John Mason and his soldiers blamed the Pequot Indians. So they went out directly and killed 400 Pequot in retribution. This included women and children. And when the massacre was done? The Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, William Newell, proclaimed: “From that day forth, shall be a day of celebration and thanksgiving for subduing the Pequots.” Happy Thanksgiving. Pass the gravy.
I could list story after story here, but the point is, we’ve been following a history written by white men for a long time. And this account has been slanted, perhaps on purpose, to make that white man look like the hero in the story.
And here we are today, in a world where information is at our fingertips. It is amazing and incredible the things we can learn by searching for one little topic in the wide-open fields of Google. This conglomeration of mass information is all right before us.
But, no good deed goes unpunished. This ability had become a double-edged sword. Yes, we are learning more, like finding those blunders in historical teaching, or sharing scientific facts, and so much more. Like recipes for double fudge caramel peanut butter brownies. And on the other side of all that goodness is a wide network of misinformation and lies. It fills the world with doubt, fear, hatred, and suspicion.
My only advice, and I take two doses every morning: Only consult credible sources. Forbes has posted a list of credible news sources at https://www.forbes.com/sites/berlinschoolofcreativeleadership/2017/02/01/10-journalism-brands-where-you-will-find-real-facts-rather-than-alternative-facts/#250077fce9b5
Universities, top-rated colleges, are also another good source of credible information.
We live now in a world of information. And we are making history by the minute. I hope today, all of us, can make good history, no matter what it is we do.
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“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”
― Oscar Wilde
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“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”
― Winston S. Churchill
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“People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it’s served up.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
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Chopping down little trees and other things
