For Whom?

My wife shared with me last night that our neighbors are in a panic because their grandson is at risk of not graduating high school for academic reasons. I didn’t think too much about it.

Fast forward a couple hours and my youngest starts yelling in the middle of the night so I head downstairs in the dark and when I get to his room, he just says I want to lie down. So I cover him up and zombie back up the stairs to try to get back to sleep.

But I can’t.

I start thinking about the kid at risk of not graduating and start thinking about how I will stress the importance of academics and studying and critical thinking to my children.

And I envision working with my oldest on reading his history books in high school and I envision talking about: breaking down the chapters, writing down key words, knowing definitions, and making connections between ideas, dates, and important figures.

I have no idea what time this was: it could have been midnight it could have been 3am.

And I envision talking to him about the humanity in our history and not shying away from the ugly facts but addressing them and trying to think about ultimate and proximate causes.

And I remembered reading Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of The U.S.

 

And I envision talking to him about how they rolled slaves into the bottom of the ships like they were logs and that many of them died in the bottom of the ship during the voyage from the sheer madness, the claustrophobic madness of being on their backs unable to move or get up, all the way from Africa to the United States…on a sailing ship -6 to 8 weeks.

I couldn’t get back to sleep.

EPILOGUE

I recently reviewed yet another student loan bill of mine and will wince and feel my stomach drop every time I have the gumption to even look at one.

However, as the culture wars rage and as I view from afar and sit quietly as a certain ilk refuses to look at our country’s history with unbiased, honest, authentic eyes, I value, supremely, such a small thing I learned raking up student loan debt.

When someone is telling you this or that is great and even better, this or that is the greatest. Like: This is the greatest country on earth.

You, yes you, are always permitted to ask: For whom?