Remember the "trail of tears," that series of forced relocations of some 100,000 Native American peoples from their ancestral homelands, to areas that had been designated as Indian Territory. You might have heard about it (or not). They were not allowed time to gather their belongings, and as they left, whites looted their homes. Then began the march known as the Trail of Tears, in which 4,000 Cherokee people died of cold, hunger, and disease on their way to the western lands.
Wanna know how that is now "discussed" in new Canadian history textbooks? This is from a 3rd grade history book.
The textbook, which was apparently supposed to teach third graders about Canadian history, presented a stunningly whitewashed interpretation of European colonialism. Following searing indignation across social media, a Canadian publisher will recall a textbook that rather obliquely claimed First Nations and Indigenous people happily “agreed to” move for European settlers.
While there is an understandable need to phrase potentially complex historical concepts, this revisionist history is simply inaccurate — and perpetuates a narrative of white charitable conquest. There are certainly other ways to explain how European settlers unjustly stole land from people who were there first at a third grade-level. If a third-grader can understand “moving out,” surely they can also understand “forced from their homes.”
Amid all the comedy going on in Washington these days, we sometimes forget there there are other serious concerns across this country, such as the attempt to erase the history of the Native Americans. If you are the parent of a young child in grammar school, you might want to check your child's history text to see how the Native Americans are discussed in this country.
Caroline went off to her first day at the vet school yesterday morning. I made sure to put coffee on delayed start before I went to bed so she would wake up to hot coffee, whether I was awake or not. I was sort of awake when she was making her lunch, but I never stirred when she was having breakfast and fixing her lunch today. If Polly barked at her, as she usually does when she comes downstairs, I didn't hear her at all. She was gone half an hour before I woke up. I keep assuring people that they don't need to worry about being quiet if I am sleeping because they won't wake me up.
When I am sleeping on the living room couch at Alice Nan's when we are in Santa Barbara, everyone can carry on a conversation, including laughing a lot, and I never hear them.
I once went to Lake Tahoe as babysitter for neighbors for whom I regularly babysat. The parents would go off to gamble after dinner and I would put the kids to bed and then stay up until the parents got home. At least that's what I did the first night.
They felt sorry that I had stayed awake waiting for them to come home and assured me it would be OK if I went to sleep.
So I did.
It just happened that they forgot their keys that night and tried knocking, standing under the bedroom window (on the 2nd floor) and calling me, tossing pebbles at the window, and finally getting a ladder to climb up, open the window, climb over my body asleep under the window, wake both kids, put them back to bed. I never woke up.
In the morning we agreed that I should sit up an wait for them to come home after their visit to the clubs that!
I sleep so soundly it's amazing how often I have insomnia. It's definitely not NOISE that keeps me awake! In fact, I keep the TV on low all night and it wakes me up if Walt decides to turn it off.
But Caroline seems to have no problems with sleep. Last night, after dinner she went out for a long walk because she spent the whole day in a windowless room and she needed to be out in the air.
We're trying to figure out a good place for her to go hiking with fiancé Tim after he arrives on Friday. We're pushing for Mt. Tamalpais, because of the reward of the beautiful views of San Francisco from the top. She's a great hiker and most of her Instagram photos are taken of views from the top of some mountain or other.
Today is Tuesday. She just got here but it's almost time for her to go already!
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