Independence from France – In 1965

I work occasionally with a business consultant and earlier this week we were discussing the possibilities for The History Blog Project.

The conversation led to John relating the story of his recent conversation with two young men in his favorite Austin coffeehouse, one soon to be a senior in high school and the other just graduated. John asked them if they knew what the July 4^th holiday was all about.

They both knew that it was about American Independence. But from whom?

One thought we had liberated ourselves from the iron grip of Imperial Spain. “No, no”, said the other, “It’s France”.

And when?

“1965?”  

I was not there, I did not hear this exchange. But John has little reason to make such a thing up.

(I have a distinct memory of sitting on our couch in Denver during the Christmas holiday of 1965, watching the Vietnam war on television. At least I think it was Vietnam…)

Who to chastise here… The young men that have made it thus far in their American education without even a rudimentary understanding of our history? Or the adults charged with imparting this rudimentary knowledge? Or the society in general that allows both the adults and children to so egregiously miss the boat.

Take your pick.

How many of the young soldiers in Iraq are there, filled with talk of Fighting for Freedom – or the justification du jour – that don’t even know the history of their own fight for freedom? Is their idea of America only what they’ve seen since the election of George Bush and 9/11?

Is this what America has become? The vision of George Bush’s messianic mission – “crusade”, as he himself put it – and young men, products of mainstream American education, believing that July 4^th is a day to celebrate our independence from France on that fateful day in 1965?

This is what I think: If you can’t name at least six people who signed the Declaration of Independence (that’s right, six. Go crack open a book, or better yet, google it if you need to), who we were declaring independence from, and the year it was signed, then I think you should not be allowed to go to preemptive war in a foreign country until you’ve taken – and passed – an American history class (one hopes George Bush would pass muster).

If we can’t insure at least this much, then we shouldn’t put a gun in their hands and send them to a country whose culture their own leader doesn’t understand.

Is anybody paying attention here?