January 18, 2008
Gratuitous Domestic Posting - Manning the Ramparts Division
So the eldest Llama-ette came home from St. Marie of the Blessed Educational Method singing a new song recently. It is set to the tune of La Marseillaise and goes something like this:
In-1789-Louis-the Siiiiiixteenth
Caused the Fre-eench Revolution.
He was the worst king since Louis the Fifteenth,
Who was the worst king since Louis the Fourteenth...
And so on, apparently all the way back if not to Charlemagne, then at least the first of the Bourbons. I can't get the words and meter exactly right, but you get the idea.
"No he didn't and no he wasn't," I snapped when I heard her. "Where on earth did you get that?"
"From my music teacher," the gel replied. "She wrote that song."
"Well, she certainly didn't write the tune," I said, "And she's quite wrong about her history. The forces that erupted in 1789 had been building up for a loooong time. Louis' problem was that he was too soft and too kind-hearted. That gave those Jacobin dogs and their rabble the opening they were looking for, with the result that poor old Louis, his wife and a lot of other perfectly innocent people suffered for it terribly. There's not much good can be said of the French Revolution."
I told her not to, but I have every reason to believe she's gone straight back to her teacher and relayed my comments.
This is the same teacher who wrote a Columbus Day song that starts:
In Fourteen Hundred and Ninety-Two,
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
It was a courageous thing to do,
But someone was already there.
The chorus is a laundry list of Indian tribes, all implied to be living in perfect harmony with each other and Nature.
This one happens to scan prettily, but I still don't like it. When the gels sang it for the first time, I launched into a cranky little screed about the myth of the primitivist paradise, touching not only on the great imperial civilizations of Central and South America and what they did to their neighbors, but also the fear and loathing of the Sioux by everyone around them and the outright terror inspired by the Iroquois in every other tribe east of the Mississippi.
Posted by Robert at January 18, 2008 03:54 PM | TrackBackThis is a perfect example of why we parents need to stay involved in our kids' educations.
Posted by: GroovyVic at January 18, 2008 08:25 PMAllen Sherman, I think.
Posted by: Ed Flinn at January 18, 2008 08:39 PMEvery time LaRaza types talk about the indigenous peoples migrating around the Americas without concern for Western civilization type borders, I wonder how freely the Navajo or Hopi traveled through Apache country. Neither the helicopters nor the original Apaches are known for Emily Post manners.
Posted by: AKL at January 18, 2008 10:05 PMIn Fourteen Hundred and Ninety-Two,
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
It was a courageous thing to do,
But someone was already there.
They weren't there Robert,living an idealic life, peacefully amoungst the bounty of North America?
What is wrong with you???
Robbo, send this article in to the music teacher so she can do a rewrite for next year's Columbus Day festivities... From Scientific America (and read closely so you don;t miss it):
"CHICAGO (Reuters) [Januray16,2008]- New genetic evidence supports the theory that Christopher Columbus brought syphilis to Europe from the New World, U.S. researchers said on Monday, reviving a centuries-old debate about the origins of the disease.
"They said a genetic analysis of the syphilis family tree reveals that its closest relative was a South American cousin that causes yaws, an infection caused by a sub-species of the same bacteria.
"Some people think it is a really ancient disease that our earliest human ancestors would have had. Other people think it came from the New World," said Kristin Harper, an evolutionary biologist at Emory University in Atlanta.
"What we found is that syphilis or a progenitor came from the New World to the Old World and this happened pretty recently in human history," said Harper, whose study appears in journal Public Library of Science Neglected Tropical Diseases.
"She said the study lends credence to the "Columbian theory," which links the first recorded European syphilis epidemic in 1495 to the return of Columbus and his crew.
"When you put together our genetic data with that epidemic in Naples in 1495, that is pretty strong support for the Columbian hypothesis," she said."
Columbus and his crew caught syphilis from the "someone was already there", so to speak...
"But somebody was already there . . . with a millenia long cultural tradition of human sacrifice . . . "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice_in_Aztec_culture
I believe his name was Tlaloc, to be exact.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlaloc
Charming fellow.
Posted by: The Abbot at January 19, 2008 09:10 AMMrs. P, I do believe you've accomplished the next-closest thing to giving the niece or nephew that vile Fisher Price corn popper/lawn mower toy. The thought of Rob's kids singing anything about the 'syphilis family tree' will ring in my head until I lose consciousness.
Said gifted teacher's other work reminds me of Red Ships of Spain.
Posted by: tee bee at January 19, 2008 05:53 PMNavajo story:
"The Apache raided into our country, once. For the next hundred years, you could follow their line of retreat by going from one set of bleached bones to the next."
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