Indiana’s Anti-Howard Zinn Witch-hunt

[DiscoBerry]

I had no idea Indiana could be sooooo-Texas. 

But Gov. Daniels, now president of Purdue University, was not content merely to celebrate Howard Zinn’s passing. He demanded that Zinn’s work be hunted down in Indiana schools and suppressed: “The obits and commentaries mentioned his book ‘A People’s History of the United States’ is the ‘textbook of choice in high schools and colleges around the country.’ It is a truly execrable, anti-factual piece of disinformation that misstates American history on every page. Can someone assure me that is not in use anywhere in Indiana? If it is, how do we get rid of it before more young people are force-fed a totally false version of our history?”
We know about Gov. Daniels’ email tantrum thanks to the Associated Press, which obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Scott Jenkins, Daniels’ education advisor, wrote back quickly to tell the governor that A People’s History of the United States was used in a class for prospective teachers on social movements at Indiana University.

Daniels fired back: “This crap should not be accepted for any credit by the state. No student will be better taught because someone sat through this session. Which board has jurisdiction over what counts and what doesn’t?”

After more back and forth, Daniels approved a statewide “cleanup” of what earns credit for professional development: “Go for it. Disqualify propaganda and highlight (if there is any) the more useful offerings.”

In case any from outside the US is wondering, our textbooks are dumbed the fuck down. 

Take for example the last textbook I was assigned as a teacher at a public high school in Portland, Oregon, American Odyssey, published by Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. In the book’s one thousand pages, it includes exactly two paragraphs on the U.S. war with Mexico—the war that led to Mexico “ceding,” in the polite language of school curricula, about half its country to the United States. American Odyssey does not quote a single Mexican, a single soldier, a single abolitionist, a single opponent of the war. Well, in fact, the textbook doesn’t quote anyone. As one of my students pointed out when we read the book’s dull passages in class, “It doesn’t even view it as a war. It’s a situation.”  This scant treatment of such an important event in U.S. and Mexican history is one reason why teachers search out alternatives like A People’s History of the United States, which includes a full chapter on the conflict, focusing especially on President Polk’s hollow justifications for war, the anti-war resistance, and the human impact of the war. Unlike the gray prose of textbooks like American Odyssey, Zinn’s chapter on the U.S. war with Mexico—“We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God”—is filled with quotes from soldiers and poets, surgeons and abolitionists, generals and journalists, clergymen and presidents. Every passage reminds young people that war is much more than a “situation.”

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/07/19

[solar.]

Indiana being backwards isn't news to me, because I've lived here all my life. Between this, Hephzibah House, SEEKING same-sex marriage being a felony, and clergy performing same-sex marriage ceremonies being a misdemeanor, this state is fucked. I can't wait to get the heck out of Dodge.

[kefkaownsall]

Damn I thought book burnings were a metaphor not reality

[Lt. Fred]

Obviously the governor's actions are pretty silly, not to mention unworthy of high office. I do think that a People's History is probably not the best option for a general introduction to history though. The literature has moved on since 1988.

[lord gibbon]

In fact, there is a book he wrote more recently called Voices of a People's History of the United States that I actually own. It's really more supplemental, but it does go up to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

[Dakota Bob]

Well, you don't have to pass an I.Q Test to be elected. But they should at least take a quiz or something, holy fuck there are some dumb motherfuckers in politics.

[Dr. Weird]

Indiana being backwards isn't news to me, because I've lived here all my life.

You too, huh?

Yeah, I knew Daniels was gonna be trouble.  He was Dubya's budget director for Grife's sake, (Meaning he played a key role in turning Clinton surpluses into Bush deficits).  So he learned from the "best" when it came to being a hypocritical, self-righteous dickwad.

[Alehksunos]

Well, you don't have to pass an I.Q Test to be elected. But they should at least take a quiz or something, holy fuck there are some dumb motherfuckers in politics.

Great idea, this should be a requirement to every politician here in the United States, hell, any society whose politics are focused around Democracy.

All politicians must sign a quiz testing rational thought and compassion. All politicians must study American history and the United States Constitution and must not be fuck-all at testing time. Rejected beliefs includes creationism, global-warming denialism, anti-ethnicity sentiment, anti-religion/irreligion sentiment, anti-LGBT sentiment (or Heterosexualism), abstinence and other forms of sexual oppression, etc. fanatical, anti-intellectualist and overall undemocratic notions. Anyone who fails will either be rejected from a position or removed. Federal law, like Lawrence vs. Texas and that recent no age-limit birth control access law, no states should be exempt, not even any "red" state. The assholes and idiots lose, everybody else wins.

It may sound overbearing, but keep in mind that there are no society on earth without at least some strict rules and laws, but these apply to our politicians so they won't sign and pass unjust laws.

[ThunderWulf]

It honestly scares me that people like this actually get elected into public offices.

[Vypernight]

He doesn't realize that by banning access to any mention of Zinn, he's influencing people (especially children) to learn more about him.  Has he learned nothing from history?  Oh yeah, that's right, he wants to censor history.  Brilliant movie, Einstein!

[Sigmaleph]

Well, you don't have to pass an I.Q Test to be elected. But they should at least take a quiz or something, holy fuck there are some dumb motherfuckers in politics.

Great idea, this should be a requirement to every politician here in the United States, hell, any society whose politics are focused around Democracy.

All politicians must sign a quiz testing rational thought and compassion. All politicians must study American history and the United States Constitution and must not be fuck-all at testing time. Rejected beliefs includes creationism, global-warming denialism, anti-ethnicity sentiment, anti-religion/irreligion sentiment, anti-LGBT sentiment (or Heterosexualism), abstinence and other forms of sexual oppression, etc. fanatical, anti-intellectualist and overall undemocratic notions. Anyone who fails will either be rejected from a position or removed. Federal law, like Lawrence vs. Texas and that recent no age-limit birth control access law, no states should be exempt, not even any "red" state. The assholes and idiots lose, everybody else wins.

It may sound overbearing, but keep in mind that there are no society on earth without at least some strict rules and laws, but these apply to our politicians so they won't sign and pass unjust laws.

I'm not sure how serious you're about this, but it has the obvious failure mode of giving too much power to whoever it is that decides the basic standards. Something like 40% of America are Young-Earth Creationists, and most of the rest think evolution is guided by divine command. Why assume it's not going to be one of them that says you can't accept evolution through natural selection and be elected to public office?

In a working democracy, the people should know these things about politicians and then decide not to vote for them. It doesn't work perfectly in practice, obviously, but democracy is less about working perfectly than it's about avoid avoiding catastrophic failure.