Last night, July 3, 2020, President Trump gave a speech at a rally in front of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. I will spare you all the history of Mount Rushmore and the controversy surrounding the land that it is built on (you can do your own research there and see). In part of the speech the President told the “true stories” of the four Presidents immortalized on the monument. In many ways, what he said was either wrong, or misleading. In class each and every day I try to get my students to see the whole picture. Look at a problem in history from every angle-not just one viewpoint. The speech on American history last night left a lot of that out. In our current climate as a country, change is sweeping the country. Now more than ever it is important to look to history with a critical eye and realize those in our nation’s past did great things but also had flaws, much like ourselves. Would you go through your entire life only telling people the great things you did and never pause to reflect, and learn from, mistakes you’ve made? So in this post I am going to edit the President’s speech. I am going to attempt to fix it, or at least say what should have been said if we’re telling the “true stories” of American history:
First, let’s begin with the transcript of President Trump. Mind you this is part of a larger speech. But pasted here is word for word what President Trump said last night:
“Our people have a great memory. They will never forget the destruction of statues and monuments to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, abolitionists and many others. The violent mayhem we have seen in the streets and cities that are run by liberal Democrats in every case is the predictable result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias in education, journalism, and other cultural institutions. Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes but that were villains. The radical view of American history is a web of lies, all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition. This movement is openly attacking the legacies of every person on Mount Rushmore. They defiled the memory of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt. Today we will set history and history’s record straight.
Before these figures were immortalized in stone, they were American giants in full flesh and blood, gallant men, whose intrepid deeds unleashed the greatest leap of human advancement the world has ever known. Tonight I will tell you and most importantly the youth of our nation the true stories of these great, great men. From head to toe George Washington represented the strength, grace, and dignity of the American people. From a small volunteer force of citizen farmers, he created the Continental Army out of nothing and rallied them to stand against the most powerful military on earth. Through eight long years, through the brutal winter at Valley Forge, through setback after setback on the field of battle, he led those patriots to ultimate triumph. When the army had dwindled to a few thousand men at Christmas of 1776, when defeat seemed absolutely certain, he took what remained of his forces on a daring nighttime crossing of the Delaware River. They marched through nine miles of frigid darkness, many without boots on their feet, leaving a trail of blood in the snow. In the morning, they seized victory at Trenton after forcing the surrender of the most powerful empire on the planet at Yorktown, General Washington did not claim power but simply returned to Mount Vernon as a private citizen.
When called upon again, he presided over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and was unanimously elected our first president. When he stepped down after two terms, his former adversary, King George called him the greatest man of the age. He remains first in our hearts to this day, for as long as Americans love this land, we will honor and cherish the father of our country, George Washington. He will never be removed, abolished, and most of all, he will never be forgotten. Thomas Jefferson, the great Thomas Jefferson, was 33 years old when he traveled north to Pennsylvania and brilliantly authored one of the greatest treasures of human history, the Declaration of Independence. He also drafted Virginia’s constitution and conceived and wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, a model for our cherished First Amendment. After serving as the first Secretary of State, and then Vice President, he was elected to the presidency. He ordered American warriors to crush Barbary pirates. He doubled the size of our nation with the Louisiana Purchase and he sent the famous explorers Lewis and Clark into the west on a daring expedition to the Pacific Ocean. He was an architect, an inventor, a diplomat, a scholar, the founder of one of the world’s great universities and an ardent defender of liberty. Americans will forever admire the author of American freedom, Thomas Jefferson, and he too will never, ever be abandoned by us.“
Again, that was just a section of the speech. Now like I said before, I don’t make political posts. So this is not an indictment on him as a person, as a President, and in no way meant to show support or a lack of support. I am merely presenting a critical view of the information presented to the American public. I teach kids for a living. I teach the youth of our nation, and since President Trump said he was doing the same thing last night I figured I would add some of my own notes to his speech, so that we all have the complete picture of these historical figures. So below is his words, with my additions/modifications:
Our people have a great memory. They will never forget the destruction of statues and monuments to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, abolitionists and many others. (Maybe, but history isn’t about monuments. I can read history all i want and never need to see a monument. Monuments immortalize a person at their best and don’t account for flaws)The violent mayhem protests we have seen in the streets and cities that are run by liberal Democrats in every case is the predictable result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias misinformation in education, journalism, and other cultural institutions. Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes but that were villains (I don't know where this is happening. If anything kids are far too often taught that America is great and people like Washing and Jefferson never did anything wrong). The radical view of American history is a web of perspectives, lies, all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, where every motive is examinedtwisted, every fact is distorted presented and every flaw is acknowledged magnified until the history is purged and the record is all brought to light and we are left to make our determinations. disfigured beyond all recognition. This movement is openly attacking questioning/evaluating the legacies of every person on Mount Rushmore. They defiled examinethe memory of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt. Today we will set history and history’s record straight.
Before these figures were immortalized in stone, they were Americans giants in full flesh and blood, gallant men, whose intrepid deeds unleashed the greatest leap of human advancement the world has ever known (a bit of grandstanding here, but I will allow it). Tonight I will tell you and most importantly the youth of our nation the true stories of these great, great men. From head to toe George Washington represented the strength, grace, and dignity of the American people. From a small volunteer force of citizen farmers, he created the Continental Army out of nothing and rallied them to stand against the most powerful military on earth. Through eight long years, through the brutal winter at Valley Forge (Valley Forge is often overblown--see Ray Raphael's "Founding Myths" for more), through setback after setback on the field of battle, he led those patriots to ultimate triumph. When the army had dwindled to a few thousand men at Christmas of 1776, when defeat seemed absolutely certain, he took what remained of his forces on a daring nighttime crossing of the Delaware River. They marched through nine miles of frigid darkness, many without boots on their feet, leaving a trail of blood in the snow (again see Raphael's book here...)In the morning, they seized victory at Trenton after forcing the surrender of the most powerful empire on the planet at Yorktown (actually the war went on for almost 2 more years), General Washington did not claim power but simply returned to his plantation, Mount Vernon, as a private citizen.
When called upon again, he presided over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and was unanimously elected our first president. When he stepped down after two terms, his former adversary, King George called him the greatest man of the age. He remains first in our hearts to this day, for as long as Americans love this land, we will honor and cherish the father of our country, George Washington. He will never be removed, abolished, and most of all, he will never be forgotten. But, in our current state of affairs, we must also be reminded of George Washington the slave owner. Washington who owned over 300 people in his life time and never freed one of them. We cannot fully understand how far we've come as a country if we ignore this truth.
Thomas Jefferson, the great Thomas Jefferson, was 33 years old when he left behind his plantation, and those enslaved there, and traveled north to Pennsylvania and brilliantly authored one of the greatest treasures of human history, the Declaration of Independence. He also drafted Virginia’s constitution and conceived and wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, a model for our cherished First Amendment. After serving as the first Secretary of State, and then Vice President, he was elected to the presidency. He ordered American warriors to crush Barbary pirates. He doubled the size of our nation with the Louisiana Purchase and he sent the famous explorers Lewis and Clark into the west on a daring expedition to the Pacific Ocean. He was an architect, an inventor, a diplomat, a scholar, the founder of one of the world’s great universities and an ardent defender of liberty. Americans will forever admire the author of American freedom, Thomas Jefferson, and he too will never, ever be abandoned by us.“ But again, we must fully evaluation the Thomas Jefferson who owned over 600 people in the course of his lifetime. The Jefferson who had children with one of those enslaved people. The Jefferson who also authored the important work, Notes of the State of Virginia, that furthered racial prejudices and engrained racial differences in "science."
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Now this is not the best edit ever, but it's a start. It's the beginning of a more complete conversation. I did this post not to hate on our past, in fact quite the opposite. Picture it this way--if you love someone you love all of them right? You come to grips with past mistakes, troubles they had, errors they made, and you celebrate the good they do. The same should be true for looking at our past: we can love this country and bring into questions the flaws and it does not make us any less patriotic. Only when we are willing to examine the past critically, and fully, can we really move forward as a nation and finally come to grips with our past. In the song, " A Better South" the band American Aquarium sings that "to the right side of history we're always late." As a country we need to accept our past as a way to move forward.
