Saturday, July 04, 2009

In which I get on my high horse to beat a dead one

The Halifax Chronicle Herald prints my latest ramblings, which are more or less on the same theme on which I fulminated here. Take that, dead horse!

NB: from what I understand, though it is listed as a "letter" on the Herald's website, it's actually presented in the paper as an opinion piece, thus marking me off as a special breed among the cranks that fill that page.

4 comments:

Travis said...

I remain ambivalent about the importance of history.

I tend to think it falls into the same category as current events: learning about them changes few to none of your perceptions and actions. It wouldn't make people politer, nicer or smarter.

But then again, nothing short of imaginary futuristic neuroneoevolutionary cybersurgery would, would it?

That all said, your idea is an excellent one.

dmchenail said...

Mark -

What a wonderfully written letter and I'm so glad it was published Canada-side. I agree wholeheartedly with your ideas and am constantly frustrated with the nationalist, old white men historical stuff. Back in Ottawa, though, most of the schools were named after said old white men. I also went to some schools with people's names and don't even know who they were!

Henry Munro Middle School? Just googled him and apparently he was a politician for Canada West... hmmm...

strasmark said...

Travis: Personally I'd think that history is important for citizens of any democratic country to intelligently use their franchise. Given your feelings on democracy, I can see how you'd disagree.

For my next article, I'm going to try to come up with a new and controversial position on neuroneoevolutionary cybersurgery.

Danielle: Thanks! On the theme of Old White Man (and be careful - I'll be one myself one day!), I'd like to see a school named for Violet Desmond.

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