Tuesday, July 5, 2011

4th (Or rather 5th) of July

I heard somewhere that in England they celebrate it by sitting around, drinking cheap beer, and mocking us. While here we set off highly dangerous explosives into the air for entertainment and drink the exact same (Brand of) beer.
Of course, unless you are under the influence of alcohol, fireworks are perfectly safe devices.
You normally think of our country as wonderful and great, because, of course, it is. However, think of something else for a moment. The american revolution was formed because of anger at the British, much of which comes from the boston "Massacre". The history book I read in 6th grade said that (Quote approximated) "Some boys were  throwing snowballs and making fun of british soldiers. They got angry and shot 5 of them". What really happened was boys and men were throwing snowballs at soldiers, yes. But the snowballs were filled with sharp ice. Clubs were also being thrown. On of the soldiers was knocked down by one of the clubs and his finger accidentally tightened around the trigger. The rest of the men thought that they had been given the order to fire, so the shot. 5 lives were lost, yes. But they were not from evil, menacing british soldiers, but rather an accident resulting from a violent riot.
There were other causes for the American revolution, some of which are moral, but at any rate the british are and never were not some evil race of anti-Americans as some sources say (Such as the the play Paul Revere, the Musical!)
My point? That, even in the class room, history picks its heroes and villains. We are Americas, so therefore the beginning of our country is supposed to be thought of as a fight as good vs. Evil, even when it isn't. I don't know what I would do if I were a teacher. Do I stick with the history books or sympathize with the British?

No comments:

Post a Comment