American History X

More and more each day, I fear that the American educational system as lampooned in Animal House is becoming more of a documentary.

In case you haven't consulted a calendar lately, yesterday was the 64th anniversary of The Date Which Will Live In Infamy; today is the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's death.

Granted, it's more fashionable to celebrate anniversaries that are divisible by 5. And one that involves the death of a rock-n-roll icon. But still.

I found two articles mentioning Pearl Harbor in yesterday's paper. The first was on page 12 on the front section. The other article was an editorial, you guessed it, comparing Pearl Harbor and 9/11. It was not so much a remembrance as it was an argument about why we mustn't cut-and-run in Iraq.

In today's paper, there are a couple of feature pieces about a group of New Yorkers petitioning to have the 1 am Central Park curfew lifted, or at least just for Strawberry Fields. The other article interviewed the doctor who declared Lennon dead. Both are fairly newsworthy and mildly interesting. But I guess it's better than revising history.

Many documentaries concerning Pearl Harbor drip with guilt and shame. Sure, I'm sorry hundreds of thousand of Japanese civilians unnecessarily died and subsequent generations have suffered deformities because Hirohito didn't know how to say Uncle soon enough. I'm also sorry Dorie Miller had to throw down his spatula and pick up an anti-aircraft gun because Kimmel's boys couldn't differentiate geese from Zeroes. I'm also sorry tens of thousands of Filipino and U.S. soldiers were forced to march or suffer brutal beatings in Bataan.

Sherman may have underestimated when he said that war is hell.

Sometimes history isn't pretty. Usually, the package isn't any more presentable just because a neatly-tied bow is placed on top. The full picture is often distorted and grey.

The story has been told that when Oliver Cromwell approached the famed painter Peter Lely to paint his likeness, Cromwell warned he wanted a true picture, even if it were to be unflattering. He wanted his likeness to accurately depict his roughness, warts and all.

That should be our approach to learning history.