Tea partier: "Had there not been slavery in the South, the economy would've fallen"

Tea Party activists in Tennessee are urging lawmakers to change that state's school curriculum to require schools to teach differently on slavery.

"My biggest concern is that important information is being omitted, which creates a negative light on our Founding Fathers," said Tea Party activist Brian Rieck.

Many members of the group are asking Tennessee lawmakers to tweak textbooks so that doesn't happen. Notably, they're hoping to make changes in how slavery and encroachment on Native Americans are portrayed to students. "Slavery is of course portrayed in the textbooks nowadays I'm sure as a totally negative thing. Had there not been slavery in the South, the economy would've fallen," Rieck said.

Emphasis mine.

These people want us to gloss over the very real human toll of slavery. They want us to believe that if the slave in the picture above hadn't suffered through that, the economy of this country would have faltered.

It's bad enough that history courses gloss over discrimination against Catholics, Jews, immigrants, and other groups. Even worse, students hear little mention of the brutality faced by Native Americans as they were forcibly removed from their lands.

Now this.

You know what is said about how those who don't learn from history. These people want to condemn our kids to repeat history.

First Class

This is an awesome story I saw on Facebook. I don't know if it's true or not, but it has a good lesson or two!

A 50-something year old white woman arrived at her seat and saw that the passenger next to her was a black man.

Visibly furious, she called the air hostess.

"What's the problem, ma?" the hostess asked her

"Can't you see?" the lady said - "I was given a seat next to a black man. I can't seat here next to him. You have to change my seat"

- "Please, calm down, ma" - said the hostess
"Unfortunately, all the seats are occupied, but I'm still going to check if we have any."

The hostess left and returned some minutes later.

"Madam, as I told you, there isn't any empty seat in this class- economy class.
But I spoke to the captain and he confirmed that there isn't any empty seats in the economy class. We only have seats in the first class."

And before the woman said anything, the hostess continued

"Look, it is unusual for our company to allow a passenger from the economy class change to the first class.
However, given the circumstances, the commandant thinks that it would be a scandal to make a passenger travel sat next to an unpleasant person."

And turning to the black man, the hostess said:

"Which means, Sir, if you would be so nice to pack your handbag, we have reserved you a seat in the first class..."

And all the passengers nearby, who were shocked to see the scene started applauding, some standing on their feet."

Bits of Tid: July 28, 2009

• The US Senate Armed Services Committee will be holding hearings on repealing the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy!
• Be sure to sign the petition at citizensforapublicoption.com!
• Shock-ing: