The Intellectual Rape Of Innocence

If you're a parent like me, you almost always ask your children how school was that day or what did they learn. Now, what would you do, better yet, how would you react if your child responded with this:

"We learned in history today that the Declaration of Independence was a, was a statement of, you know, hope and, and positive democracy. And then the Constitution came along and sort of negated that."

I know how I would react and it wouldn't bode well for that school. If you think that children in this country are not being taught that, then think again and this intellectual rape of our nation's children is being spearheaded by a ultra radical left wing reprobate by the name of Howard Zinn.

Who is Howard Zinn? He is an American historian and professor emeritus in the Political Science Department at Boston University. He is the author of more than 20 books, including A People's History of the United States. He also runs a website that promotes his ultra radical agenda of changing the history of this country.

Although I have not read any of his books and relying on other historians who have, I don't think I even want to use the pages from them to start my fire place. This guy is a real peach. Not only does he twist history, he seems to omit much of it by throwing objectivity out the window:

"Objectivity is impossible and it is also undesirable. That is, if it were possible it would be undesirable, because if you have any kind of a social aim, if you think history should serve society in some way; should serve the progress of the human race; should serve justice in some way, then it requires that you make your selection on the basis of what you think will advance causes of humanity."

Dan Flynn wrote an eye opening article, which he states in part:

More striking than Zinn’s inaccuracies—intentional and otherwise—is what he leaves out.

Washington’s Farewell Address, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and Reagan’s speech at the Brandenburg Gate all fail to merit a mention. Nowhere do we learn that Americans were first in flight, first to fly across the Atlantic, and first to walk on the moon. Alexander Graham Bell, Jonas Salk, and the Wright Brothers are entirely absent. Instead, the reader is treated to the exploits of Speckled Snake, Joan Baez, and the Berrigan brothers. While Zinn sees fit to mention that immigrants often went into professions like ditch-digging and prostitution, American success stories like those of Alexander Hamilton, John Jacob Astor, and Louis B. Mayer—to name but a few—are excluded. Valley Forge rates a single fleeting reference, while D-Day’s Normandy invasion, Gettysburg, and other important military battles are left out. In their place, we get several pages on the My Lai massacre and colorful descriptions of U.S. bombs falling on hotels, air-raid shelters, and markets during the Gulf War of the early 1990s.

How do students learn about U.S. history with all these omissions? They don’t






Apparently, Mr. Zinn thinks that he is omnipotent in that he does not feel that he is required to back any of his "historical" expertise and knowledge with any supporting evidence. This is an academic no-no. When anyone is writing any paper or book that is of a historical, non-fiction nature, the author must cite supporting evidence so that readers can scrutinize the author's work and keep him or her honest.

His book has sold about 1 million copies and has recently been reprinted in hard cover. What seems to account for these sales is that he is using a tactic of targeting the Hollywood elite types. If you have ever seen the movie Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon's character mentions Zinn's book to his psychiatrist that it will "knock you on your ass...".

And it doesn't end there. Apparently Matt Damon and his sidekick, Ben Affleck grew up  in Zinn's neighborhood and reportedly are making a miniseries based on their neighbors tome.

To be fair to Howard Zinn, though it is difficult and I am mustering as much fortitude as I can to write this, he does admit that the 1995 edition of his book is biased. He states:

"I am not troubled by that, because the mountain of history books under which we all stand leans so heavily in the other direction, so tremblingly respectful of states and statesmen and so disrespectful, by inattention, to people’s movements, that we need some counterforce to avoid being crushed into submission."

If there ever was a reason to home school your children or start your own school charter, this guy is all the ammunition you need. People like Howard Zinn and his ilk are doing everything they can to rewrite our nation's history by blotting it out, much like Adolf Hitler and his minion Joseph Goebells did during the Nazi era of Germany.

There also may be some legal issues with Howard Zinn's method of teaching (brainwashing). Schools are required by law to teach various points of view in a factual and objective manner. Schools are not allowed to engage students in a discriminatory fashion that may tend to lead to indoctrination.

Our nation is a flawed one, however, compared to other countries we are the most noble. We have made mistakes in our past, but, a countries greatness is measured by how many of its people try to leave it as opposed to how many people are trying to get in.