Betsy's Page
As proof that elections make a difference in ways that people often don't think about, the New York Sun has an article about Bruce Cole who is the director of NEH under President Bush. Under his leadership, NEH has made a special effort to support the teaching of American history and to make sure that when American history is taught, it is more than a catalogue of sins against minorities.
<<< "We have waves of people coming into our country, seeking the blessings of our liberties," some of whom arrive without clear ideas of what unites them to America or what binds Americans to each other, Mr. Cole said last week. "We're not united by blood or land," the historian said. "We're united by ideals."
Defining and defending those American ideals has become the purview of the NEH since Mr. Cole acceded to his current post in December 2001. Since then, the endowment has seen its annual budget grow to almost $141 million in its request for fiscal year 2007, from $120 million.
This year, about $15 million will go to the NEH's "We the People" American history program, which Mr. Cole described as the centerpiece of the endowment's work under the Bush administration.
The initiative, announced by the president in 2002, seeks to remedy Mr. Cole's observation that Americans "don't know anything about U.S. history." According to a 2002 Columbia Law School study, 69% of Americans of voting age thought the infamous doctrine of Karl Marx, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs," "is" or "might be" enshrined in the American Constitution.
"Empty heads get filled with empty ideas," Mr. Cole said during an interview last week at the NEH's headquarters in Washington's Old Post Office Pavilion, itself a piece of American history. "They believe conspiracy theories - they believe things like Oliver Stone."
The "We the People" project, Mr. Cole said, works to replace the emptiness with the compelling narrative of America's history and "well-grounded patriotism." In promoting traditional instruction of American history, Mr. Cole said, "We want to tell the whole story," acknowledging, "yes, there are valleys - but there are many, many more peaks."
The project is particularly urgent, the chairman said, in a time of war, when America's enemies are inspired in their killing of our civilians and soldiers by their hatred of American freedoms.
"How can we defend our liberties if we can't define them?" Mr. Cole said. >>>
Hurrah! You can certainly teach the full picture, warts and all, but sometimes when I look at curriculum and some textbooks, it seems that warts are all that people are interested in.
Read the whole article about what NEH is funding and focusing on and ask yourself if this would have been what NEH would have been doing under a President Gore or Kerry. That is one of the zillion reasons why I get so annoyed at stay-at-home conservatives who get ticked off and figure that it doesn't matter who gets elected. Sure, the GOP tick me off and Bush disappoints me sometimes. But, I just picture what the government would be like with Speaker Pelosi and President Kerry and I know that I'm not going to stay home even if I have to pull the lever, shudder, for John McCain.
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