When I attended school in the ’50s and early ’60s I was taught how our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution and set up the basis for our government.

I was not taught how they compromised on allowing slavery to continue. Nor did we have the context of how the government was formed to allow only male landowners to vote. There was no context of how women and slaves were excluded from participating.

There was no context of how white men stole land from Native Americans or were forced onto reservations, or how their children were taken and put into white schools, taking away their native dress, language and customs.

We did not learn that when Black people were freed from slavery their rights were taken from them. Nor did we learn about Tulsa, red lining, their not being allowed to vote or what things like a poll tax really meant.

I do wonder if future generations will be taught how drug arrests primarily were aimed at people of color and how many white people committing the same crimes were not prosecuted. Or how a person of color was more likely to be watched in a store or stopped for traffic violations.

I do wonder if future generations will be taught that the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2020 by those who tried to overthrow our government and prevent the results of a lawful election from happening were just tourists out for a stroll and sightseeing.

It’s time to teach real history.

Stan Tetenman, Poland

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