When I finished grad school in the early ’80s, I studied primary source documents to discover what our Founding Fathers and others in early American history actually wrote, believed or did. Thus, I found Thomas Jefferson’s warning to Judge William Johnson June 12, 1823: “History may distort truth, and will distort it for a time, by the superior efforts at justification of those who are conscious of needing it most. Nor will the opening scenes of our present government be seen in their true aspect until the letters of the days … shall be laid open to public view.”
Today, Trump Republicans are exercising those “superior efforts” in distorting history, disgracing the name of Jefferson’s Republican Party. Trump’s March 27 executive order has the misnomer title of “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” It should read “Restoring Lies and Insanity to American History.” Or it could best be titled “Whitewashing American History.”
Trump history is distorted history of white America. Trump’s history excludes Black history, especially the role of slavery. Black contributions are whitewashed out of our history. Gone are the Tuskegee Airmen. Also gone are contributions of women like the WASPS and current female high-ranking officers. Were Abigail Adams around, she would be fomenting a women’s rebellion like that she threatened John Adams within her “Remember the ladies” letter of 1776: “We will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”
Lay open all our history. Let us deal with the truth if you want us sane.
Bruce Braden
Carmel, Ind.