My Fellow Americans

There came a time when I was in high school when the captain of our cheer team and my father had to testify in the same case. That probably sounds strange. It was. My father had to testify because he was the president of the company that distributed Mississippi’s textbooks, and the cheerleader had to testify because she learned from one of these textbooks.

One of my father’s closest friends was the lead counsel for the State of Mississippi. It’s probably a good thing that nobody ever asked Bill Goodman if he thought Mississippi was right or wrong in their actions; they just asked if he thought they could get them out of it. He usually did.

The issue at stake was whether or not a Mississippi History textbook, particularly the book Mississippi History: Conflict and Change, should include events that happened in Mississippi when the cheerleader and I were born. The issue was that by telling the children of Mississippi the truth of what happened here, then they might love their country that much less.

Yesterday, the President-Elect of The United States posted a short speech on Education on Twitter. In it, he mentioned reading, writing, and arithmetic, but not history. He did say that he wanted to make it illegal to teach things in our school that might make our children hate their country instead of loving it. I wonder if he meant what happened in Mississippi in 1963 and 1964. Florida has already passed a law calling the teaching of what happened here “Critical Race Theory,” which it’s not. Our children are so frail and so weak they must be protected from their own history.

People ask me why I don’t trust my Fellow Americans who voted for Donald Trump not to become fascists. The answer is pretty simple. I live here. I’ve always lived here. I know what happens here. I’ve always known what happened here.

The people who want you to believe that Barack Obama was born in Africa (he was not) and his Wife is a man (she is not) DON’T want you to know what happened in Mississippi in 1964. Keeping information from people doesn’t usually work out. Let’s see what happens.

Anyone can become a fascist at any moment, and anyone can become a true Christian at any moment. They will know you by your fruit.