Keep Learning

Hello Everyone:

Today was one of those days where I felt like throttling someone.  Carer Number 2 created some drama over running a simple errand for mum.  Apparently the issue was using mum's card.  She didn't feel comfortable about doing that and called her company to find out if she can use her card.  When we chatted about it, I stupidly made some comment if she was worried about being African American.  I felt really bad about and quickly apologized and she graciously said she wasn't offended.  I don't know why I asked that.  I guess with all calls for racial justice, I learning how to think and speak in more enlightened way.  It's hard because all the new information is coming fast and thick.  I'm trying to digest it all as quickly as I can.  One thing that did annoy was the hashtag #CancelHamilton--as in the musical Hamilton.  Apparently, some took offense that the playwrights downplayed slavery.  It had me thinking, do these so-called enlightened ones get off on watching their fellow humans being stripped of their dignity and humanity?  Yes, the Founding Fathers present a serious problem: On the one hand, historical figures like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were slave owners.  Alexander Hamilton was not a slave owner but his wife's family owned enslaved people.  Nevertheless, how would the musical's narrative been furthered by depicted slavery?  I agree that new scholarship in American history offers a way to re-contextualize history.  That's the way it should be.  Scholarship shouldn't encased in amber.  What I learned in university is eons away from high school history class and even more distant than what I know and am learning now.  That's good because learning and understanding should never be static.  Anyway, it's time to eat.