will it be confusing to schoolchildren that on 7/4 they are supposed to celebrate our liberation from the wicked English, and on 7/7 they are supposed to feel bad that some people living in England were killed?

"The ones we killed in the 1770s were bad Englishmen. The ones that got killed in 2005 were good Englishmen. The ones that burned the first White House in 1812 were very bad Englishmen indeed. The ones that oppressed the Irish . . . can you guess? I'll bet you know the answer to that one, right?"

I hope my kids grow up fast enough that I can bring some nuance into the discussion. I'm especially looking forward to explaining "blowback" as it relates to international diplomacy. The discussion of the Hitler-Stalin pact will be fun. My daughter will learn to block out the sound of my voice, just as I blocked out my own mother's voice as she discussed mathematical principles.

Posted by: Attila at 01:15 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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