A tip of the hat to Left in Alabama for this about history as most of us 50-plus years were taught in elementary and high school. No wonder we have some of the issues we have here in the state. It seems like the apologists were still writing about those good ole days as late as the 1970s.

Flip to today — most kids can’t take a history or science book home, so how in the heck are they supposed to know what is written about their country. Somebody needs to put together a foundation and purchase our kids some history books with the real stuff in it.

For my money, I’ve appreciated Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States,” which I’ve had the pleasure to teach on the community college level over in Louisiana. My students did not agree totally with Zinn, but his book provided an interesting base from which to talk.

Then, there’s “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong” by James W. Loewen, who takes the most popular textbooks and shows where they are lacking. One key example is that of Alabama’s own Helen Keller. Loewen points out most books hail her as this person who overcame being deaf and blind, making Keller two-dimensional. What most texts fail to do is follow up and show what a prolific author Keller became as she aged, her opposition to war and her membership in the Socialist Workers World and other groups. Oh, she also help to found the American Civil Liberties Union.

History is what it is — all of it; not what we make up or omit.