RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUE HISTORY
Teaching True History
In Carolina the Underground Railroad
Was a smuggling operation
In Florida slavery was job training
In Alabama the Civil War was fought
Over economic differences
In Mississippi (goddamn) Strange Fruit
Were Kiwis and Kumquats
In Tennessee the Trail has no Tears
In Oklahoma Tulsa has no ghosts
In Texas the Rangers never killed Mexicans
In North Dakota Wounded Knee was a battle
In California we teach the truth
We didn’t always but we do now
If a child does not know where he came
From she will not know where to go
If a child does not know true history
He will not be prepared for the world
If a child is raised on mythology as if
It were the truth that child is condemned
To a future of disappointment
You cannot hide the truth forever
You can ban books but you cannot banish reading
You can bend facts but you cannot revise the truth
When you lie to your children over and
Over you guarantee disenchantment
And you will never win their trust
Teach your children the truth or
They will grow to resent you
And they will be right
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