Life... It's just another story.

The United States is facing a new dilemma, not about health care or the war in the Middle East, but a new proposition brought up by the Texas Board of Education “to further emphasize the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history” (Simon). Wait, wait, wait… Did I just say that Texas is proposing a new curriculum which goes against my rights as an American given to me by the central core of the United States called the Constitution? What happened to the idea of the enlightened thinkers who helped us realize that the separation between church and state was for the better in our country? And who gets to have the ultimatum of choosing what goes in and out of the history books? I am pretty sure our buddy John Locke would not approve of this.

Anyways, there are three reviewers who support this new proposition, appointed by social conservatives of Texas, who believe that the biblical principles of our country need to come out in the textbooks. They argue that our founding principles are biblical. This may be true, but why should the scriptures be integrated into the history books as well? This goes against the beliefs of many Americans who are non-Christians and their Constitutional rights. Many people will argue that history books should include the facts, including the fact that American History has been influenced by Christian values. This may be true, but was the creation of the United States based more on the contribution of Christian beliefs or the ideas of enlightened thinkers? What about the men whose beliefs our government is based upon, such as Locke, Rousseau, and Montesquieu? Even the man who penned the Constitution, Thomas Jefferson, was influenced by enlightened thoughts. History books are meant to educate the public about the past events which have occurred throughout our lifetimes which have led to the society which we live in today. By keeping religious views out of the public education system, this gives everyone a chance to learn and comprehend history at their fullest potential, without being suppressed or even shameful for not believing in another person’s beliefs. So keeping religion out of the history books is good right? In our case, that is correct, but how this is done is not so truthful.

Textbooks, like all other government approved forms of writing, are to be written objectively, or without bias. This is said to be “professional” and “acceptable” by major news publishing companies, like CNN and the New York Times. Who’s to say that everything written in the history books do not reflect a certain bias? Who gets to decide what goes in and what is not acceptable for publishing in the textbooks the American children are learning from while being educated in school? The event to decide what goes in and out of history books demonstrates the human’s uncontrollable ability of being biased while believing they are objective in their course of writing. This decision to control who or what is published for everyone to read shows the capable manipulation of what the history books teach students. This is beginning to sound a lot like the quote from Orwell’s 1984 novel, “Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present, controls the past.” While writers decide which events go into the books and what perspective it is coming from, they should understand that everything that goes in them will be eternalized by the ones who pick up the book and decide that what they are reading is true. This means that perspective becomes a huge issue. By only stating one side of an argument, in this case historical events, people are lead to support the side they read about without knowing the wholesome truth. I would like to argue that there is no such thing as objectivity in any form of historical documentation. As long as people write, the thoughts and ideas going through their heads give them a bias that we cannot escape.

So what is the answer to all of this madness? I say the only thing that we can do to satisfy all of humanity is to publish the ultimate history book containing every major event from all cultural perspectives, with the views of all different religions described in the backs of them and how they have contributed to the world. This sounds pretty crazy, but it’s the only way we can be “objective” in a world or bias. What should we name this gargantuan of a book? I think the word “Life” suites it very well.