Free Speech or True History - Whateevr that is...

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

You say this like it hasn't happened yet (well, not the fine/imprisonment stuff):

HOW OLD IS THE GRAND CANYON? PARK SERVICE WONT SAY Orders to Cater to Creationists Makes National Park Agnostic on Geology

http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=801

 

[Gonzo1]

I believe in a free market, I also must have a license to practice chiropractic. So must a barber, embalmer, real estate agent, insurance agent, autioneer and so on.

 

I can see the case for a license, if it will lead to a better and correctly informed public.

 

I don't think it's right to just make stuff up and call it fact.

[BDPT00]

"I don't think it's right to just make stuff up and call it fact."

 

So ... now we've finally brought this subject around to Scouting.

BDPT00

[Gonzo1]

BDPT00,

I'm merely saying that if a tour guide is hired by a company to give tours, the public has a reasonable expectation that the information the public receives is factual, not made up like Benjamin Franklin had 69 illegitimate children and that three-time widow Betsy Ross killed her husbands.

 

I realize people make mistakes, but I think its' wrong to make stuff up if the tour guide is employed by a company to give tours. Otherwise, the guide could open their own business and let the market decide. Word will get out that XYZ company has bogus guides, but boy, they sure tell a tale.

[GernBlansten]

Gonzo,

would you have a problem if a Grand Canyon ranger told you that the canyon was created in the receding waters from the great flood of Noah?

[Gonzo1]

Gern, I think you ask a loaded question, but, yes, because while I'm no geologist, I believe that the rock walls of the Grand Canyon could not be made by receding waters from the Great Flood.

 

I suppose you're going to tell me that's what park rangers tell people. C'mon, everyone knows the Grand Canyon was made by Paul Bunyan dragging his axe behind him.

 

 

[OldGreyEagle]

Aw c'mon now Pecos Bill dug the Grand Canyon to hold water for his cattle.

[packsaddle]

I'm thinking the point he's trying to make is that all those creation myths have equal evidential validity. Some of us just laugh more at some than at others.

[John-in-KC]

I thought it was Babe the Blue Ox's tail dragging ground on a really hot Arizona day...

[Rooster7]

I'm pretty sure the Grand Canyon was created by the dragging knuckles of evolutionary man. ;-)

 

Okay so now the government gets to license those who recite history.

 

Who gets to decide what the true facts are?

 

How did WWII start? Why did we leave Vietnam? What were the origins of the Civil War? Why did we get involve in Afghanistan and Iran? What was 9-11 about? Gee all those should be easy to clarify to the public, right?

 

Im sure theres only one way to tell those facts and everyone (at least the vast majority of Americans) will be completely harmonious as to what should be taught and asserted as truth.

 

[Beavah]

Rooster, I think you're strainin' at gnats, eh?

 

Why worry about tour guides when the government licenses public school teachers and dictates curricula very much along da lines of the examples you give?

 

B

 

[Rooster7]

True enough. That should give us more reason to be concerned, not less.

 

Is it a good thing, to have a singular congruent perspective on history presented in the public schools? If you adamantly believe that perspective is true, then I suppose it is. However, if you believe that perspective is being colored to meet the desires and goals of those empowered to determine curriculum, then its not.

[hops_scout]

Somebody got to decide that 2+2=4. What can't 2+2=22?

[Gold Winger]

Actually, there is no reason that it can't because there exists at least one system in which it does.

[Rooster7]

"Somebody got to decide that 2+2=4. What can't 2+2=22?"

 

Hops,

 

I'm not sure what your point is, but... its difficult, if not impossible, to taint mathematics with politics or one's agenda. It is what it is. On the other hand, history is often and regularly re-invented by those empowered to create/impose change.

 

Over the last 50 years, the historical depiction of events like WWII seems to be in a constant state of flux. Shortly afterwards, the vast majority of Americans recognized WWII as one of the worlds darkness moments (of course), but it was also an event that unified this country in a significantly way and brought honor to Americans worldwide. Today, its not so clear. The focus no longer resides on the sacrifices of our fathers. Many schools and universities want to shift the focus to Japanese internment camps, Pearl Harbor conspiracy theories, how America profited from the war, What took America so long to act when Jews were dying in Nazi labor camps?, and the like. Beyond that, many portray our country as having so much evil intent; its sometimes difficult to determine who the bad guys really are even in WWII.

 

Yes, I agree that I dont want Ben Franklin portrayed as some kind of sex addict as part of a National Inquirer type of tour guide presentation. It would be nice if we could prevent that kind of non-sensebut at what price? To ensure that the PC version of WWII history is not required test material for those doing tours of the National Cemetery, Id be willing to hear about Bens wild exploits (real or imagined). In short, Im not so concerned about the bogus material being put forth as much as the total squelching of another perspective (especially when I view that other perspective as being the truth).