The Axiom of Lies

This evening I heard something that sent me straight back to my childhood on the Panhandle of Texas. It was a low-flying airplane. Instinctively I yelled, 'AIR RAID!!  The Russians are coming!  The Ruskies have found us!  Everybody under your desk!'  My body intrinsically knew to duck and get as near to the ground as possible. 

Obviously my teenage daughters froze in morbid, if not hideous, embarrassment, while I bent over in laughter at myself.  My husband kept walking and my youngest daughter asked what a Ruskie was.  Yeah.  It was time for a life lesson from mom...in the Arby's parking lot.
I started thinking about all the little bits of information that I had been spoon-fed as a child of the 80's. 

MTV did, indeed, kill the radio-star. Marty McFly could time travel in a tricked-out DeLorean.  Indiana Jones could out-wit, out-maneuver, and out-last anyone with nothing but a Fedora and a whip.   Micheal Jackson proved that zombies were incredible dancers. Ugly little aliens were endearing when dressed up as ghosties and flying through the air in the bike-basket of some kid named Elliot.  And Nancy Reagan taught us all to just say no...eventually I figured out she was talking about drugs.  These were culturally specific gobs of information plunged down our throats as Americans.

But, I recall some other, rather chilling, bits of information as well.  When I was in 2nd grade the Cold War was in full swing.  We gathered twice a year in the auditorium to learn about The Russians and what the Red Hoard was planning and plotting against the 'innocents' of the United States.  We had air raid drills.  I still remember the procedure.  We lived a comparatively short distance from a nuclear war-head plant.  We were taught that when a low flying airplane flew near, it was likely the Russians coming to bomb us.  We knew that if the Russians hit the war head plant, that based on the number of gas pipelines and the layout thereof, we could expect to be blown to bits within 17 minutes.  The low fliers would drop paratroopers that would come to attack the people on the ground, pillaging and raping little white girls.  Obviously to this day, I'm still a little frightened by the sound of a low flying aircraft...even the cropdusters.  Trust no one, right?

I also recall, rather sadly, what they taught us about the Indians that lived in our neck of the woods.  The Comanche, The Cheyenne, and The Kiowa.  I recall these tribes specifically because they were the ones singled out as violent amongst the Plains dwellers.  They didn't teach us about the inherent beliefs of the Tribes-people.  They simply taught us whether a group was likely to have murdered, raped or scalped the White settlers.  Classy.  And obviously terribly important for me to know as I've gone through life.  My elementary school principal, Mrs Minyen, (I never cared for her,) once told me I was lucky I was born with brown hair.  They would've ignored me.  But, my best friend, with her pretty blond hair, they would've killed her and taken her scalp as a trophy.  Can you imagine telling students something like that?

I won't even go in depth about what we were taught about African-Americans.  Heck, we didn't even call them THAT.  I'll just say that one of my good friends growing up...well, his name was Nigger-Bob.  It was a very different time.

It's the axiom of lies.  It really is.  That sounds like a paradox, but that's only because it is. 
As an adult, I've been able to figure out the basic truths I need to make wise and intelligent choices about people. It makes me sad to think that there are parents teaching their children the same garbage we were taught as kids. 

It's ok to question what we're taught.  It's ok to do our own research and it's ok to peel back a few layers on the ol' historical onion.  History is written by the survivors.
Survive your school years and get yourself an education...and infuse it with a touch of tolerance.