A Liberal
Dose
February 17,
2022
Troy D.
Smith
“History Is
Still the Key to Everything -Don’t Lose It”
Next week will mark one year that I have been writing this
column. The first one appeared on Feb. 25, 2021, and was entitled “History is
the key to everything.” That is the template I have tried -and, I think, mostly
succeeded -to follow: bringing a perspective from the left that is rooted in
history. My political outlook is informed by two things: what I feel in my
heart to be moral and right, and beneficial and fair to the largest number of
people, and what I have learned from studying history. A clear, well-informed knowledge
of history is an invaluable aid in understanding the world around you in the
here and now. On the other hand, an unclear and misinformed understanding of
history, or a lack or knowledge about it, is very dangerous. It can run an
individual, and a society, off the rails.
A deep concern about many people’s lack of historical
context is part of what led me to agree to write this left-of-center column. I
saw a lot of Americans repeating the mistakes, and sometimes intentional
cruelties, of the past, and not recognizing patterns that should be objectively
clear. A few years of politicians and their enablers re-working the very
meaning of what “facts” and “science” are, in a sort of Orwellian doublespeak,
had taken their toll. Six weeks before that first column, thousands of people
(some from our little neck of the woods), convinced without any proof
whatsoever that the election had been “fake,” stormed the Capitol in an effort
to prevent the constitutional process of certifying a legal and fair election,
injuring 140 police officers and actively seeking to murder the vice-president
and several others. Most of us watched on TV with jaws dropped, because we had
never expected to see such a thing in America- yet now some are claiming it
never happened or was blown out of proportion.
If anything, things have gotten worse. Laws have been passed
that are designed to make it harder for minorities to vote, because they might
vote for Democrats. Books are being burned, books about the Holocaust are being
banned, violent physical attacks on minorities have escalated. While some of my
conservative friends ask why I am always complaining instead of trying harder
to bring both sides together, I am seeing conservative columnists claiming that
all Democrats are Satan-worshiping Marxists who hate America and must be
stopped. I have to wonder if some former friend might attack or kill me because
I said something they didn’t like, or if some student’s parents might try to
take away my job because I teach actual history. Politicians in our own state
legislature want to tell educators what they can and can’t say about the things
those educators have studied intensely for years -to muzzle people who are
trying to teach our children the truth about history in order to avoid the
dangerous consequences of ignorance. They are the same politicians who sing
about small government and individual freedom, and decry “cancel culture.”
My wife and I often read the Bible together (I’m working on
my sixth time through). Recently we read Jeremiah, with whom I have felt a
close affinity since I was a teenager. God would give him messages to take to
the people, then warn him that no one would listen -in fact, they would beat
him and try to kill him. Jeremiah was not a fan of this plan -but “His message
becomes a fire burning in my heart” and he is unable to hold it in even if he
wanted to. I identify more than ever.
I will not teach lies, and I will not refrain from teaching
the truth. Once upon a time, that was considered an American virtue, even by
people who disagreed with the message. Now, they seek only to silence any
message they do not like.
How American is that.
--Troy D. Smith,
a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech.
His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
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