Re: Off & On The Topic

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Posted by Christina on November 01, 2000 at 06:57:12:

In Reply to: Re: Off & On The Topic posted by Rich on November 01, 2000 at 03:20:24:

: Rich : :Columbus, readily found on the Internet, basically claiming he was nothing more than a lost sailor, fed by greed, who discovered nothing and was directly responsible for the destruction of the Eden he accidently bumped into here in the New World.

: Annie : I have heard this before. Not only this but that Columbus ordered the killing of many indians himself. It was mentioned a couple of times in a three video documentary called "The War Against the Indians", written and produced by Harry Rasky. What shall we believe? Who's rendition of history is the truth?

: Rich: My point [one of] exactly. Why believe an E-Mail circulating around the Internet? Unfortunately, a PHD doesn't necessarily remove one's biases. It can enable one to more cleverly disguise them, though. READ! Read all you can on any subject from as wide a variety of sources as you can ... and keep an open mind. THEN, decide what could & couldn't be ... It is sad, but true, many of us simply believe what we want to believe when it comes to history. We read an article, or worse, watch a movie ... it delivers the message we hoped for, maybe unconsciously, and so we go with it.

: I have an excellent example, regarding Crazy Horse, to illustrate this point. Time does not permit me to get into it right at the moment. I'm supposed to be getting ready for work. First opportunity, I'll elaborate! Meanwhile, for homework :), follow this link and read this "bio" of Crazy Horse, found all over the Net, by Dr. Charles Eastman ...


I'm not going to get into the depths of this debate because it's one I've been embroiled in hundreds of times on and off since my days at my fairly crazy and politically charged college...but here's the basic thing I've learned about reading history, something I HAVE done a lot of and am doing more of thanks to this Board...the more you read and the more you learn about HUMAN history, the more you realize that because historical figures ARE human, they almost all have failings and bad things that they have done. This comes from the basic fact that we, as humans, are fallible...start with that fact and it makes the reading and the understanding of history a little easier to deal with, even the most unpleasant things.
Christina

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