rantings of a SAHM....

I have to preface this with the fact that I love staying at home with my little girl. I am very blessed to do so, and trust me I know this. I count my blessings everyday! However, the thing about being a SAHM(stay-at-home-mom) is the fact that it can be very lonely. Let's face it, you can't really have deep conversation with a person whose vocabulary consists of about 30 words. While Dr. Seuss can work with 50 words, I just can't! The thing I miss most about being around people is healthy conversation and debate. I have a degree in Sociology, so let's just say I have a few opinions about things. So with that being said, I am going to put my opinion out there and I welcome your insights. The great thing about debate is the chance to learn something new from a different perspective.

I have a love for History, a love! I find it so fascinating the way cultures progressed and digressed and I am enthralled with interesting people. Growing up I took all the required classes in the topic and thought I knew quite a bit. Well, I was WRONG! It wasn't until college where I truly learned a lot about History. I learned that most History books that I read growing up were, shall we say, "sugar coated". I wasn't allowed to learn some of the gritty details that can make all the difference in the world. I thought that this was just me missing out, but it turns out to be very common. I will never forget when I was in my African American Studies class my Junior year in college when we started talking about this very topic. Another student in my class was a mother to an elementary-aged child, she was saying that her daughter brought home her History book and that inside it said that slaves came to America to "help". Help!? Are you serious?! I couldn't believe that! While some of you may say, well a child is too young to know. I think that is hogwash! Children are much smarter than we give them credit for, and in today's society they are exposed to so much more than even I was a child. How can a child respect um let's say the Civil War, if they thought slaves came to "help"? Now that is just one example of a multitude of others. I really could write a dissertation on this if given the opportunity. I just want to know what you think? Should we "white wash" our History to "protect" our children?

Recently, Huckleberry Finn was re-released with slave substituted for the N word. While I think the use of the N word is deplorable, I wonder if slave is appropriate. First of all Jim was not a slave, he was freed, so in that sense it is inappropriate. However, because of this substitution more classes will be incorporating this text into their curriculum. Is this just another example of us "white washing" something to appease everyone? How can we truly celebrate how far people have fought and come, if we don't know where they started from? Don't you think we are doing those courageous forerunners throughout History a disservice? Do we devalue the 13th amendment, if we teach that slavery wasn't all that bad, I mean they came to "help"?

I know that Ansley and our next one on the way, will be getting the whole picture. I want them to know what really happened so that they have a sense of respect for how far we have come. Anyway, I will get off of my soap box, for now. Tell me, what do you think?