In this You Tube, film documenting the land of Palestine before WWI and through the creation of the state of Israel, you get a different sense of why the conflict in this area has been so bitter. I know few Americans know the true history of this land, though many know and sympathize with Jews from the Holocaust. What is disturbing is that one horror seems to be righted by another wrong. Obviously, Europeans and Americans felt some sort of guilt or empathy for the undescribable horror of the slaughter of millions of Jews. This never should have been an excuse for creating another holocaust of the Palestininans who had nothing to do with WWII.
Our skin may crawl reading accounts of Jews being dragged out of their homes, into ghettos in Germany and eventually concentration camps in Europe. Whose skin crawled when Palestinian families were being displaced? Even killed? Why do we never get to tell this story in the classroom?
Interestingly enough for me, we had a conversation in my Adolescent Literature class about the disappearance of intellect as a quality in American Literature and culture. Basically, Americans were tired of trying to live up to the ideals of intellect from Europe and cast the notion off as an Old World ideal. The model of the self-made man appeared. Street-smarts were valued above book-smarts, and the European cherished notions of philosophy, art, literature, culture were thrown out for models of invention and industry. Culturally, we do not value anything that is considered "old." We do not value the need to study other languages or culture. History is just something we have to take...and even then, it is usually about ourselves.
Why do I beat down on Americans so on this blog? Do I hate who I am?
Actually, I think I do it because I know we are better than this. If we valued truth and knowledge in this culture, we wouldn't have discussions about teaching Darwin's evolution theory in our classrooms. The only way this will change, is if the information is available and we create an interest and a value to knowing it.
Personally, nothing against Jews, the whole history of Israel is a scar that won't heal until they stop being selfish.
Innocent in Guantanamo
15 years ago
I agree with you on some level that this country should place more value on education and knowledge. One need only look at schools in Texas who have 13 football coaches but no physics department. Further, there is a distinct lack of knowledge and interest in what goes on in the world as a whole. It seems as though Americans are uninformed about their own country and news let alone about what is going in the world as a whole. Why is that we do not require students to learn at least one if not two other languages in school? And why is it that most country's can name our president but most students do not even know the type of government in other countries? I personally feel it goes without saying that our education system needs restructuring. I would not, however, go so far as to champion intellectual knowledge over street smarts and practical experience. Some people do not excel at intellectual knowledge or book-smarts. This is not to say that these people should use this as an excuse to be uninformed citizens of the world. Instead I think it would be better if we had a moderation and combination of both "book smart"and "street smart."
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