John Adams: The Courage to Sign

I've been thinking about this recently, too, and how our definition of patriot (or being patriotic) has changed so radically.

Now being a patriot, for many, appears to mean supporting the elected government without questioning or opinion. If our founding fathers had done so, this country would not exist.

I hope that one day we can return to our origins and recall that dissension is what created this country and made it a bastion for freedom.

The words of George Santayana come immediately to mind: "Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it."

History is possibly the most ill-served by the educational system. For one thing, many of the folks who teach it and who write textbooks on it don't even know it. (I have seen several books that indicate that the Atomic bomb was used to end the Korean War). The prevailing attitude of the students, and catered to by the teachers, is "Why do we have to know this stuff?"

I was lucky enough to have several excellent history teachers when I was younger (and there was a lot less history to learn), who instilled in me a lifelong love of the subject -- at least certain aspects of it.

I suspect that the American Revolutionary War gets short shrift in schools these days because, like it or not, the major particpants in it, from both sides, were White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestants and no longer count for much, these days. (If you want to get ill, look at a 7th-8th grade history textbook)

Generally, Giamatti gets few raves as John Adams. other than that, there are a number of historical liberties taken (no pun intended); some were obviously necessary to convey the information (e.g. Adams did not speak at the trial of the British at the Boston Massacre) but others were taken where they were not necessary. If you are familiar with the book (or the history), you will know where these are (and they do detract. somewhat, from the show). Still, we should be grateful that (a) this show was made; and (b) people are actually watching it.

In counterpoint to an comment from Otter, it seems to me there are many who now attack out government without rhyme or reason, making false claims or claims based on horribly flawed understanding of events and "big picture" analysis.

This post blows me away! Thank you! Every high school student and teacher should read it to absorb how monumental the event is that we teach in such an offhand manner (I am sure there are those teachers out there who are not offhand so no need to yell at me.) and the degree to which our young people are simply memorizing and forgetting it. Not feeling it, not absorbing it, not understanding how truly fortunate we are, the tremendous risk taken by a group people who had insight into the future, the courage, intelligence, and audacity stuns me on a regular basis. The longest existing constitution today was begun by these people and they also understood that it was a constitution that although great would need amending and would need the ability to amend as we recognized freedom meant freedom for all people! It is something that we should teach every year in school not just sporadically. But in teaching it we need to help young people realize how critical it is to never never be blindly willing to forego any of the constitutional freedoms that they have! Never never take that freedom for granted. Human beings so often have to learn their lessons the hard way. This is one lesson we do not want to learn the hard way. We don't want to lose our constitutional freedoms and have to fight to get them back. We don't want to lose our freedoms (WE THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE) in order to fully appreciate how completely precious they are and to appreciate the vision that those 56 people had! Thank you Ann Banks!

Big AMEN, Nick. I hated history in high school. It was all a litany of battle, treaty, broken treaty, battle... lather, rinse, and repeat. It was tedious beyond words.

Then I married the son of a history teacher. And that son would sit and tell me stories from history, stories about the people involved and what motivated them, and what was happening around them that affected the outcome. And I'm telling you, those were some of the best stories I had ever heard.

I know that you have to do a certain amount of memorization of battles and treaties to have the framework in time. But history is about people and the things they do, the choices they make - and if I had ever had a history teacher tell me stories the way my husband did, I might have taken a different path.

Bless you Otter for you speak the truth! If indeed our founding people had been a rubber stamp of their country of origin we would not be the great entity that we are! We must not fear change and we must not fear those who offer critique. We must always listen. What we must fear is those who would condemn us for examining the actions of those who are elected to represent the populace. When we talk of the United States of America we do not speak of George Bush and Dick Cheney. They are but servants to carry out the will of the great people of this country. I am eternally grateful that much of the world has the insight to separate the people of the USA from its leadership of the day regardless of the political leaning of that leadership. They are simply the servants of the constitution and its people. They are not the master, not the king, not the lord but merely servants. This takes continuous reminding of those who get carried away with the flush of power, a common human failing.

May I also add Ann Banks that just about the time I start to question whether I wish to continue to log on and read TBD, I see a beautiful post such as yours and it refreshes me anew! You have made my day!