6/17: More Bullshit

My social studies exam was depressing.

It wasn’t that it was difficult or biased, but that the students I had sat next to and tolerated for almost a year seemed to know absolutely nothing about history. And not just history, but modern events, too – One girl, a senior who would be graduating this following Thursday, asked with glazed eyes what country the 9.11 terrorists were from.

LOL WHAT?

Now, look, maybe she was just… not too bright, right? But it wasn’t just her asking questions like that.

Let me make one thing abundantly clear: there is no excuse for not knowing about this stuff.

This was the same girl – These are the same students – That openly agreed and talked about how the war was about oil and egged our teacher on when he ranted.

In fact, let’s catalogue all the glorious truths I have learned in my Junior year in High School under the banner of American History. Here is a shortlist:

• John Walker-Lindh, “The American Taliban”, was not fighting against Americans. He was fighting some other rebel faction and we just happened to find him amongst the bodies. Because we’re embarrassed we couldn’t catch him under any crimes against his country, we’ve cut him a deal. Boy, are we red in the face!

• America has not always stood for it’s principles of Freedom, Equality, and Civil Rights.

• Bush is a jackass. You know what, he wasn’t a stupid man, stupid men don’t get as far as he did, I don’t care who you are. And I don’t agree with everything he did and we weren’t happy watching that money funnel down the toilet but he was(at the time) still our President and you have to have some respect. There is a line.

• The War was about oil.

• Republicans are desperate to get Barack Obama out of Office so they’ll do anything, including examining his birth certificate, to get him out. He often lumps run of the mill Conservatives up with the Right-Wing Crazies.

• He briefly touched upon the Homeland Security report, reaffirming the ideas of the “Right Wing Terrorists”.

• It’s his job, not to report the facts, but to – and I quote – “interpret the news” so that we can understand it… Are we too stupid to use our critical thinking and come to our own conclusion?

He’s a nice guy, a good person at heart, but I’ve left his classroom before. It’s wrong for him to stand up there on a pedestal and say those things, no two ways about it, and – listen – that’s the short list! There’s more!

You want to bitch about education? You tell me college is going to be bad? I’m getting fucked over already.

And I’m told I’ve got to grit my teeth because it’s not about right and wrong – It’s about tolerance.

What a load.

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