Sunday, November 18, 2007

No-Thanks-giving

Via Fark one finds this, at WorldNet Daily (note: not an actual news source!). The gist: some Seattle school officials are doing the PC thing to Thanksgiving, noting, among other things, that it is an occasion for mourning for some native Americans.

Now, I dislike and deride the PC thought police as much as any sensible person, and more than most... But this case seem emblematic of much of the PCish stuff drubbed relentlessly by the right...and...er...me... Most of the school district's claims in this story aren't wrong. They may be rather preachy and artless, and have that naggy PC tone...but they really aren't wrong. One could, with even just a little thought, put together a similar set of claims that were rather more clear-eyed, non-preachy and non-naggy.

It's hard for people to come to grips with the real, unvarnished history of the U.S. Consequently, I think a little finesse and sensitivity is required. Lots of the PC stuff is just insane, but a good bit of it is at least close to the mark. It's too bad it's so often presented in a way that almost seems calculated to be off-putting to almost everybody.

1 Comments:

Blogger Tom Van Dyke said...

Every civilization until William Wilberforce of the UK got the Slave Trade Act of 1807 passed, and eventually its total moral abolition in the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act, sucked by any and all contemporary standards.

And yes, the Founding itself kinda sucked, not to mention Manifest Destiny. More Hobbes than Locke in practice, pushing the Native Americans around and all.

Wilberforce was a Christian and a conservative, but we should read nothing into this except that those groupings might not be moral derelicts after all.

[And no, I've never seen the movie. I don't get my history from the movies. Was it any good? He kinda sucked in "Fantastic Four." Sounds boring, all that talk about human rights and everything.]

9:59 PM  

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