History

I barely remember history class. My family moved so often—it seemed as though, despite my age or the grade, I was always stuck studying the war for independence. I’m sure, at some point, I was at a school where the Civil War was taught. This being the North, it would’ve been presented as a war fought primarily to end slavery. What were Southern kids taught? My understanding is that it’s referred to as the War of Northern Aggression. Honestly, what’s that even mean? Isn’t owning another person pretty damned, over-the-top aggressive, to put it way too mildly? Should I conclude from their name for the war, that the South was feeling all pissy because we made them stop the barbaric bullshit?

The South was always writ large to me as a scary, dangerous place. Unless, of course, you were lily white—it was a place to avoid at all costs.  I recall driving back to Boston, in 1980, after my beau and I visited his parents in Florida. At the time, I thought of Florida as no more than a safe, tourist and retirees state—not really part of the South. We stopped for gas in South Carolina. I was afraid to get out of the car—seriously. Granted, there were skanky-as-all-hell, skinny, sweaty white dudes sitting out front. Chaw was dripping from their ugly mouths. They were staring/leering at me like I was no more than a side of beef. Yeah, I got back in the car real quick.

Mind you, regarding racism and prejudice, the North isn’t significantly or necessarily any better. Remember this pic taken in Boston during the busing protests? Also too, not all Southerners or Northerners are the same... Duh!

Back to history though—at the rate we were moving, there was no fucking way I’d learn about either of the World Wars. And I didn’t—not in school anyway.

What about Vietnam? I learned about that, in part, from watching the nightly news with Daddy but also from reading. Ya know who really lost that war?  The Vietnamese, that’s who! In an excerpt from James Fenton’s book, All the Wrong Places, included in Bad Trips, he sees, first hand, the destruction of the city of Huế  where he’s staying with Vietnamese friends. It’s horrifying. Bombed and shelled from both the Vietcong and the U.S. forces,. Their homes and businesses are robbed and destroyed.

War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again, y’all
~ Edwin Starr 

The other stuff they don’t teach in school? The genocides and other crimes against humanity that were sanctioned by our government. Nope—if it’s not taught it didn’t happen. We can go on with our idiotic cheerleading Rah, Rah, Rah, USA. USA, WE’RE NUMBER ONE!

I only mention it but Germany, remember them? They’ve had a nasty-ass turbulent history too. Interestingly, they’ve chosen to remember it—complete with memorials and block size sculptures.

If we don’t seriously remember history—our own and others—we’re bound to let that shit happen again.