Comments for TRUTH NOW: Interview of Gore Vidal at http://atlanticfreepress.com , comment 1 to 5 out of 5 comments http://atlanticfreepress.com Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:36:05 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/2258-truth-now-interview-of-gore-vidal.html#comment-2840 This has little to do with any flaw in any system but more to do with a Revolution in governing. The, "We the People", of the once great nation have set idly by while the Federal Government has pretended to come to the rescue over and over with the same proposal for the same laws. They are quick to hand out the amnesty and gravy parts for the illegal invaders but NEVER get to the enforcement parts of the laws. They promise fences that are never delivered. If I pulled the stunts that they have pulled I would have been up on fraud charges decades ago. It is clear that it is now time to get onto the task of getting these Revolutionary's sent to trial. Aiding and abetting is a felony and is just one of many charges that need to be considered. Many of those in law enforcement and civic duty have sworn an oath of office that includes upholding the law and the United States Constitution. Article 4 Section 4, specifically states we are to be protected from invasion and insured a republican form of government. It is time for all of us to try and attend as many city council, town hall and other meetings that involve the running of our country. We have many in office now that need to be replaced. We will need many good honest people to fill these positions. Watch for those that have a talent and the courage to stand up to the Revolutionaries in these meetings. They may make good replacements. We are going to have to restore law and order in our government before we can restore law and order in our streets. - a guest Sun, 26 Aug 2007 20:26:21 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/2258-truth-now-interview-of-gore-vidal.html#comment-2839 In the sixties music was very important in helping bring us all together. This was during the Viet Nam war era. The media kept telling us everyone believed what they wanted us to believe, we believed, I believe. Well something like that. People went around for a while thinking they were alone. People slowly started waking up to find we all didn't think alike like they said. For me it started with the Beatles and I happened to be about that age when that sort of independence happens anyway, I suppose. For a moment after they came to America we had two camps. People either liked them or didn't. A trivial thing but the division was taken fairly seriously at the time. Some let their freak flag fly by growing their hair. People were expressing themselves about other things also. Some not so trivial. One was the war. Like I said earlier many of us felt alone at the time. Not anymore! We had new allies on many topics. One that seemed pretty important was whether going to Viet Nam was really high on your list. The war never did draw enough people that really wanted to volunteer to go that I remember. Many did not feel comfortable volunteering others to go. Any way to make a long story short we started getting together and sharing with each other how we felt on many things. The media no longer controlled our minds. We had a whole new world full of friends and started having more fun with each other. We also grew a new respect for each other that has never died. Arlo Guthrie and his song and movie Alice’s Restaurant brought many of us together to help us face some of the reality we had to face at the time. Some say the happenings of the sixties were a mistake. As we look back some of it may appear wrong but it felt right at the time and life can be like that. Everything that happened may have not been important in itself but it was part of the whole. Hopefully we learn from the past but it did take all of it and everyone doing their thing to get us where we are today! Many of us still haven't lost our faith we found in each other. People are again coming together. It's not all going to be easy. It sure can be a beautiful thing to behold. - a guest Sun, 26 Aug 2007 20:25:33 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/2258-truth-now-interview-of-gore-vidal.html#comment-2838 The Unacknowledged Holocaust Back in the 60’s the Federal Government came into the public schools and brainwashed us as little children with the message that the children we were about to have were unwanted because the population was rising so fast. They launched a program called, “Zero Population Growth”. They pushed Family Planning and birth control pills. I think you and I now both know that you only have to trick people for their few child bearing years and there is no going back. Many of us never had a say in the future of our unborn. I am the result of two living cells. One from each of my parents. They are the result of two living cells, one from each of their parents. I wasn't just born. I am a continuation of life. I am a living thing that reaches back into time perhaps 400 million years and the result of billions of joining of pairs of cells. It is possible that if you were to follow my cells back to my parent’s cells and beyond that my family tree touches every living thing here on earth. That is if we limit ourselves to believing life was created here on earth. If it rained down from the immensity of the universe it could reach back into that immensity of time and space, and who knows what relationships and who knows what species. At least until I came up against the Federal Government and their plan to control the population. I have seen the Federal Government do little else to control the population. The open border, United States laws only apply to some, is a serious slap in the face. No, not a slap in the face, it reaches well beyond that. Maybe back to the beginning of time and stretch to the bounds of the universe. - a guest Sun, 26 Aug 2007 20:24:42 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/2258-truth-now-interview-of-gore-vidal.html#comment-2837 Dear Linda Sutton, I’m going to post some thoughts as I have them reading this article. I am at the point that Gore Vidal says, “Start with creation theory, teach them all, no matter how silly, teach all of them. I had a Biology teacher that did that. Her name was Mrs. Brown. Many of the things she taught, she told us of several theories that different people had come up with. She left it up to us to make up our own minds and allowed us to pursue them or disagree or support. She strayed way off of the topic at times as she was a scientist at heart and brought many things she had been reading about into the classroom. She told us about how we would soon have computers. I could see that a great new field would be opening up in Medicine and Biology, as we would have new tools to track medical records and other facts that could lead to many new cures. She was fascinating. “I enlisted in World War II when I was seventeen, most of us did. And, we were not cowards like Bush and Cheney and all the other draft dodgers. We enlisted — we put our lives, we put ourselves in harm's way, as they like to say, never having done it themselves. “ That was an honest war. The wars we have had since are not anything I would want to be associated with. Note; I see now I should have read on. I read your piece and would like to send you some things I have written recently. The education system can be very good but with much of the propaganda they now put out, our once great nation has been lost to a Revolution in governing In order to restore law and order in our streets we are going to have to restore law and order in our government. Carson - a guest Sun, 26 Aug 2007 20:23:46 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/2258-truth-now-interview-of-gore-vidal.html#comment-2836 MUNRO: OF COURSE I do not agree with Mr. Vidal on many things but I grant he is intelligent , amusing , a talented writer and you can learn from him. Indeed, he was not a coward. He volunteered for active service in WWII. His biting marks on the chicken hawks are well made BUT he forgets George Bush was an officer in Texas Air National Guard and flew fighter plans. Bush is no idiot –though I think he is a shallow man- and he is no coward. But people of the left exaggerate their smarts and denigrate the intelligence and character of people on the right. LS: Going back several years on textbooks, Diane Ravitch in her book, "The Language Police," denounced what she called the "regime of censorship" taking place in textbooks and testing materials saying that the pressure groups from both sides of the political spectrum have forced the watering down of the curricula to such an extent that it has seriously affected students' ability to read and think critically. Would you comment on that? GV: All I know is what you just quoted. I am quite sure of it, knowing how the U.S. works and how the pressure groups work. I mean if anybody would allow into a room without roaring with laughter who denies evolution, if you deny that, you deny all modern science, all medicine, and all knowledge of the human race. And only someone extremely stupid, full of the laughing gas of very, very primitive fundamental religions which were told to stay to their humble place by Thomas Jefferson, and they still should be kept. When I used to campaign around the country, if I ever felt I wanted a big line of big applause for something, I would always come up with, "Also, I favor the taxing of all religions." You get knocked over by the waves of applause whether they're Jews or Catholics or Protestants. It's ferocious. They all know all the religions are getting away with murder and are breaking the law. They are not taxed because religion is supposed to be a good thing. And, but, they must not go into politics. That's the quid pro quo. And, of course, they all immediately have political machines. They elect governors. And they smear people, and they go after minorities that they don't like. These are evil people! And my guiding word for today is Franklin's, these are corrupt people. MUNRO: it is obvious Mr. Vidal only travels among narrow elite secular humanists. I personally have no problem with evolution. I like fossils. I admire Darwin (but not Social Darwinism) . I state the obvious when I saw religious often support traditionalist factions; but there are opposing factions such as Planned Parenthood, ACLU and the state-supported Academy which also operate as factions to elect people. Mr. Vidal is showing his bias here. On US HISTORY TEXTBOOKS: There's one, The American Pageant, I think it's called. It sounds like a law firm — it's Kennedy, Levy, and something else. They've got one of everybody among the authors. It's very good — and very grown up. I was surprised and delighted. And actually kind of useful if you could teach it. The kids will come out knowing a good deal about their country. So, that's a good step. I bet it's run into trouble already. MUNRO: Once again Mr. Vidal gives an indication that he is SOMEWHAT informed about history text books. The American Pageant, which was the text book used by my own children and I used it as a supplement, is a reasonable and comprehensive US history text book. BUT THERE IS A PROVISO. THIS BOOK IS AN ADVANCED AP LEVEL AND COLLEGE LEVEL TEXT book. It is not for the run of the mill student or the immigrant ELD student. For that purpose there are better books such as the books put out by McDougall Littel with Spanish glossaries. The American Pagean was originally by Thomas Bailey (now deceased) and has been revised and updated by David M. Kennedy and Lizabeth Cohen (sort of a PC affirmative action DUO). It is no surprise to me that Vidal (and his friends) would like it because it is somewhat liberal and more so in recent re-written editions. When I taught AP US history I used the AMERICAN NATION by John Garraty and Mark Carnes which is fairer to military heroes (often absent in the American Pagent ),American Entrepreneurs and Spanish Missionaries for example and does not romanticize pre-Columbian peoples, minorities or socialists. Garraty, to cite a specific examples, refers to the Spanish Leyenda Negra (or Black Legend); The American Pageant, does not and so has a somewhat Anti-Spanish tone and Anti-Catholic tone. Garraty consistently gives military heroes their due. In The American Pagean there is only one reference to Stephen Decatur his famous toast “my country right or wrong” but no picture and apparently a re-written and rushed and awkward comment that some twenty pages before he had been a hero in the Tripolitan War. Garraty by contrast mentions Lt. Stephen Dacatur by rank and specifically describes his exploit which was WORLD FAMOUS (you wouldn’t know that by the PAGEANT). Garraty says “The greatest hero was Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, who captured two pirate ships, led ten men in a daring raid on another in which he took on a gigantic sailor in a wild battle of cutlass against boarding pike, and snatched the stricken Philadelphia from the pirates by sneaking aboard and setting it afire.” (page 175; American Nation; 10th edition). I know both texts well because I made a detailed study of both and I choose to use the AMERICAN NATION as my text. Daniel Boorstin and Kelly had, previously, the best written high school American history text A History of the United States (with marvelous commentaries on Supreme Court cases and the Constitution which I still use) and it had the virtue as to be more accessible to general level and college prep students. it is obvious One would hope, one would hope. We still hope. But teachers actually have not that great amount of input. GV: Well, nor should they because most of them have not studied history. So, they only know what they were taught, and which was probably not worth knowing. No, it's really who teaches the teachers in the long run that's essential to make things change. Mr. Vidal has a point here of course. To many teachers have studies ‘education’ courses and too many teachers in too many states are called upon to teach subjects in which they to not have majors or a strong background. However, gradually that is changing. Due to NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND Calfornia has moved to much higher standards for high school teachers, requiring that they be HIGHLY QUALIFIED. Today it is not easy at all to get a Foreign language credential or a history credential as well as a CLEAR Credential necessary to be a permanent teacher. One has to pass the PRAXIS which is a demanding test; easily as hard or harder than an SAT II achievement test or an AP test. But Vidal is right it is WHO TEACHES THE TEACHER that is essential and WHAT OF COURSE THE TEACHERS are taught. LS: And who should be teaching the teachers at this point? GV: People who have refused to become teachers. MUNRO: There is no question that Mr. Vidal he has a case. He would not like my answer to this question which would be to recruit more teachers from the business world (at least on a part time basis) and from the military. One of the best teachers I ever knew, a man self-taught in more than seven languages including Latin and Ancient Greek, was a U.S. military officer who spent most of his service days commanding illiterate or semi-illiterate Black troops or Filipino workers. Upon seeing that they were illiterate this young lieutenant dedicated training time on a regular basis to teach reading and writing. He was so successful that his units produced many NCO’s for the US Army. At the end of the war he was commended and offered a regular commission in the US Army. Upon returning to the USA in 1946 this veteran was told by the New York City school system 1) that he had no recent experience 2) that he spoke English with a foreign accent He did not get ANY job offers. Never was a man better suited or better trained to be teacher. This man lived for literature, languages poetry, music and books. This man was my father. Though officially he had only a few years experience as a substitute teacher I consider his military experience to have been demonstrated his teaching and leadership ability. He was a True Guardian in the Aristotelian and Platonic sense. Yet his wisdom was denied except to those few who lived in his home, dubbed the “Munro Academy” Though my father was a very talented literature and language teacher he never had a full time job teaching. There should be alternative routes to teacher certification. There is no question in my mind that a major reform would be to break up the quasi monopoly of Teacher Ed colleges and open up the schools to individuals with real life experience and military experience. Every school district should have JROTC and JNROTC programs and there should be more schools ENTIRELY based in these programs. It would be true diversity and for some kids it would be a life changing course. COMPLETE INTERVIEW: http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2258/81/ - a guest Sun, 26 Aug 2007 19:53:43 +0100