PATRIOT HISTORY

In the mid 50’s, I attended one of the first junior highs in the U.S.A. LOOK magazine came to our school and took our picture in front of the school. The next year, I was in 8-9. That means eighth grade, 9th section. There were 13 sections of 40 students per division. I hated it. Compared to Rose Hill, my grade school was 400 and predominantly Jewish. I had a sense of community there. Standards were higher and less violent.

The New York Times 1619 is too divisive to some legislators lately. I suggest reading my 8^th grade history book Wilder, Ladhun, Brown (1954) This is America’s Story, Boston: Cambridge Press. On page 1 to 105, White Europeans discovered America and civilized, as well Christianized the Indians.

Slaves were a neutral term (p.106) and 75% of Whites did not own slaves. Northerners found slaves not profitable like in the South. State by state in the North it was outlawed. These Southern laborers worked in the plantation house and out in the field. They were fed and housed. Except for a few heads of the population who were cruel, plantation life was not too bad. At night young Whites and Negroes played together and sang folk songs and spirituals.

In the index in the back, no mention is made of lynching, hanging, whipping, and torture. There is a patriot history of this same issue that was published in 2004. It has been updated and is entitled A Patriot’s History of the United States by Schweitkart & Allen. The reader may find it more moving.

On the other end of the spectrum, Wilkerson’s Caste, the Origins of Our Discontents (2020) New York: Random House is a colossal bestseller and the author has received a ton of awards and honoraries. Even Oprah Winphrey gives her stamp of approval. Nearly every angle is described about slavery from group research to how Nazi’s borrowed the strategies on Jews as the Southerners did on slaves.

My bias goes something like this. Years ago, a neighbor now passed away called me a “Nebraska Nigger.”  So, now you know how I feel. I am bi-racial and years ago, I would have been a slave.

Joel Snell

3105 Alleghany Dr. N.E.

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

52402-3315

joelsnell@hotmail.com/