The Mythology of 1619

To the Editor:

The 1619 Project is a mythical rewrite of history for current political purposes and students are being required to use this myth as the sole resource for their assignment in a mandatory History class at the Univ. of Texas atArlington. The 1619 Project is part of the required core class materials and for a specific assignment students are told they may only use the 1619 Project as a resource. Why?

Our taxpayer money is being used to promote this mythical history instead of the truth of our national past. What are the imagined values underlying this recent rewrite of American history?

The author of the previous letter to the Fayette County Record titled “The Mythical Past,” stated “we must tell the truth about history to serve the common good through prudent public policies.” I agree. In the same letter the author stated, “What is offered as a distorted mythical past denies you (the reader, listener, student?) the opportunity to deal with reality today and make rational decisions about your freedom, family, and future.”

The professors teaching this mandatory history class at Univ. of Texas at Arlington requiring the use of the 1619 Project materials are denying students “the opportunity to deal with reality today, and make rational decisions about freedom, family, and future.” Is it any wonder there a so many confused, irrational, frustrated young people today?

According to Dennis Prager, “Most American students know little about the American Revolution, let alone about the French or Russian Revolutions. The same holds true for the Constitution and every other American founding document. It is doubtful that American students know anything about Washington and Jefferson other than the fact they owned slaves. According to Pew, “about half of Americans ages 18-39 cannot identify Auschwitz or any other Nazi death camp.” “A true depiction of the evils of the 20th century would mean the end of the two pillars of leftwing ideology: secularism and big government.”

If a parent determines the K-12 government school his child has been assigned to geographically is not offering a curriculum that includes language arts and honest Texas, U.S. and world history, but instead is promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion or fabricated history that will not prepare his child for a place in society, a career choice, or help the child make rational decisions, that parent should be allowed a voucher to enroll his child in a school that will.

We cannot expect strong leaders for freedom when truth in any subject is denied the student.