The prompt was, How Your Mind Has Changed
In Grade 8, Social Studies, we had a unit on Native people of Canada
There were Plains Indians with their buffalo
There were Haida with their totem poles
There were Eskimos with their igloos
It was taught entirely in the past tense
As if they were all gone now.
No field trips to former residential schools
No trip a few miles down the highway to Osweken.
When we realize that one bit of education is biassed, partial
politically and culturally determined,
what can we trust?
Even math has uncertainty
Soon all certainty falls away.
Exodus, sung by . . . Andy Williams
"This land is mine/God gave this land to me"
#1 hit in 1961
certainly convinced a lot of people that
an ancient monotheistic tribe
that survived to the 2Oth century
had a god-given right to a piece of land -
No, that doesn't hold up.
Even borders and boundaries are
made up by power or peace-seeking groups.
Hell, the "right" to national self-determination is a concept developed in the 19th century
Before language and culture- based countries, people lived in multi-cultural empires, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and on and on . . .
What are we certain of?
The only truth we can point to is the every-changing truth
of our own experience --- and even that -
Everyone wants to believe there's an authority
Every authority can be deconstructed.
Certainty is not an indication of truth.