We make no mistakes, we have no imperfections. We treat everyone with respect; no one person lesser or greater, and it has always been that way- at least, according to Alan Gribben. This is the man who has chosen to remove the words "nigger" and "injun" from Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, because parents find them too offensive. Shall we rewrite all of Bill Clinton's presidency because some citizens find his affair offensive? This desecration of Mark Twain's classic novel is such a farce it is hard for me to understand. Did racism and slavery never exist? Should they be swept under the rug because we're embarrassed by what we did? I had thought that people had learned that shielding us from the past takes us one step closer to repeating it. The book deals with a young child and his struggle with the realization that his slave, Jim, is a real person, too. The harsh words and demeanor of some of the characters in the book is what makes the acceptance of Jim such a monumental thing. Even though people call him a nigger, he is a person and has feelings and emotions (redundant, I know), same as anybody else. We have a Banned Book Month for a reason, because these books, no matter the content, were written for a reason and deserve to be read the way they were designed.
We wrote a Friday essay comparing two poems, both about truths and lies, and the effects these words had. In one poem, the teacher made the past fluffy and fun, and saw, or actually didn't see, the children showing early signs of violent dispositions. Because he hid from them the horrors of these poor actions, they didn't realize that they were acting in the same way. If children aren't exposed to the words "nigger," and the less familiar "injun" (for Native American), how are they ever going to realize that using the terms is unacceptable? That racism and discrimination are awful, yet they happened. I feel like I am saying the same thing over and over, and maybe I am, but, maybe, that's how to get the point across. You can't erase the past, because it happened, the best we can do is learn from it and move on to be better people. Looking at the world through rose tinted glasses isn't going to make it any prettier, just throw you farther into the thorns.
