Rewriting History?

I am all for "rewriting history" in the sense that we open our minds and change the direction of what we are doing and therefor "rewriting history". But this is ridiculous.

If you have not been following the news, you may not be familiar with the textbook controversy in Texas. So here is the rundown- Texas conservatives got together and decided that our history textbooks are very liberal and biased. The solution? Rewrite them, "balancing" the liberal and conservative views. This includes changing the view of slavery, civil war, civil rights, native Americans... it basically seems like if it isn't involving white protestants in a positive way, it will be changed. Well, it all passed yesterday. (http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/texas-textbook-controversy-10714896)and http://blogs.abcnews.com/nightlinedailyline/2010/05/texas-christian-textbooks-coming-to-class-.html

I understand the whole "This is God's country" view. I am not against that in any way. I say GOD BLESS AMERICA and ONE NATION UNDER GOD with pride, but I personally don't think that when our country was founded, it was under the pretense that everyone would be Christians. And really, as terrible as it may sound since I am going to seminary, I am glad that we aren't all Christians- it provides variety and learning opportunities. Like I said in my last blog, we all have our differences and God made it that way for a reason. Do you think that he wasn't thinking things through when other religions were created? But this whole forcing our views on everyone and REWRITING HISTORY to fit them is absolutely ridiculous.

Yea, we have a dark history in some cases- I hate that we had slavery, and wars about everything. I hate that life wasn't always peaceful and people died for crazy reasons. But that is part of what makes this such a great country- WE OVERCAME IT. When our ancestors came to America, no matter who you are, they had a great influence in some way. Maybe they were with the Native Americans that fought to protect the land when the Europeans came. Maybe they were those Europeans that came to create a civilized land. Maybe they were the ones that befriended the enemy and helped to find a compromise at some point. Maybe they came on a slave trade ship and plowed the earth, creating some of the most gorgeous land there is. Everyone had bad moments, but everyone had good moments.

Yea, history may not look on the white protestant favorably at times, but rather than rewriting the textbooks to make us look better, why can't we all change our attitudes and actions now? Isn't that a much better way of rewriting history?

Even further, people think this only effects Texas. WRONG. Texas is such a huge center for education, this will all eventually come to us. This is what our children will be learning. How sad.