Thinking ... always bad news

History on TV. I am addicted to it, and yet I realize .. being a student of history .. that everyone (especially producers, writers and film editors) brings a certain bias to their interpretation of "facts". It is really too bad and sad that facts from our past cannot just be presented without that bias. But, with man being who and what he is, can we / could we ever separate our feelings and our internal and environmentally infused predjudices and agendas (that we are not always aware of) from what the facts were/are? I am watching a program on THE History Channel, emphasis mine (as are all opinions, rants and raves), about Bible Tech. It is interesting, as are all the history offerings that I am so addicted to. But, at my advanced (and Altzheimer driven/prone) age I take all opinions (and that is what history is) with a grain of salt, or better yet ... with a grain of salt and a bottle of bock beer.

I realize how much difference there is in history depending on whom is relating the FACTS. A small example is "the history of America in the 1860's" as was taught in my junior high school and high school and what I assume (rightly) is taught in my former high school today. I attended Robert E. Lee Junior High School, you won't find his name on one these days. The other junior high school in Danville (for white kids ... this was pre integration) was Stonewall Jackson Jr. High ... you definitely won't find his name on any school now-a-days. Anyway, back to my point ..... we were not taught the CIVIL War, we were taught The War of Secession. I do not recall the wording in the history books ... may have been Civil War ... but it WAS taught as the War of Secession. It was taught from a PURELY Southern point of view. I grew up thinking that Bobby Lee (Robert E Lee) was as close to perfect as anyone this side of Jesus could be. His horse, Traveler (the name of the school newspaper also), was a noble steed almost to the point of being a famous knight's steed or a unicorn. The northern troops ('Damn-Yankees' was a single word in those days) were the minions of the devil and were slovenly, uncouth, crazed heathens. I realize as I have aged and become more 'enlightened', that I was not instructed in history but in 'Biased History'. BUT, I also have realized the school kids in the north (and elsewhere) were also taught 'Biased History'. That is the only kind that existed ... and the only type that exists today and probably the only type that will exist in the future. But, I shall continue to watch history shows and read history books and hope that what native and acquired intelligence I have shall assist me in separating the wheat from the chaff as it were.