Declaration of Independence gets PC revision for kids

WorldNetDaily ^ | September 22, 2009 | Chelsea Schilling

[MamaDearest]

A textbook publisher known for painting a sunny, non-violent picture of Islamic jihad in its history books has rewritten part of the Declaration of Independence.

The Lone Star Report revealed that a fifth grader in Ector County Independent School District in Odessa, Texas, was told to memorize the Declaration of Independence as printed in "History Alive! America's Past," published by the Teachers' Curriculum Institute, or TCI.

But there was one hitch – an essential word had been altered.

The true text of the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, as written by principal author Thomas Jefferson, states:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.[Emphasis added]

However, a fifth-grade student reading one of the cover pages of "History Alive! America's Past," will see the following:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. [Emphasis added. The text contained no visible disclaimer or brackets indicating that the wording had been changed.

According to the Lone Star Report, State Board of Education member Terri Leo blasted the publisher for altering the Declaration of Independence at a Sept. 17 committee meeting.

[Viking2002]

How close is Odessa to Austin? Or the Tex-Mex border?

[mamelukesabre]

Just testing us.

If that little alteration goes over, there will be a few other little alterations.

[rbmillerjr]

These people are insane. Nothing is sacred in the march to destroy America.

[TurtleUp]

Why not? The liberals have been re-writing the Living Constitution for decades. I'm surprised they took so long to start on the Declaration. My guess is that the "Creator" comment is the next to go.

[ConservativeAtLast]

[FlingWingFlyer]

Is it possible that this isn’t intentional? We’ve got some real dumbasses teaching our kids these days.

[TXnMA]

Odessa ain’t close to anything — ‘cept, maybe Midland...

[stubernx98]

They are just trying to make it gender neutral. Of course we know that things started going down hill when they gave woman the write to drive... ooops I mean vote

[TXnMA]

Womyn at work...

[JohnQ1]

“...gave women the *write* to drive....” Maybe the right?

[kittymyrib]

Next words to go: by their Creator

[Ken H]

I've heard the Battle Hymn of the Republic altered on a number of occasions - "...let us die to make men free" becomes "...let us live to make men free".

[FlyingEagle]

Odessa is a redneck oilfield Friday night lights football town in the middle of nowhere West Texas - 50 miles to the right or left would make no difference.

The textbook selectors are in liberal “progressive” (=current code word for communist) Austin.

[Coyote Choir]

The change to “people” is similar to the wave of pc alterations in traditional hymn lyrics which were not noted as changes either, at least in the new and improved hymnal I looked through myself when they landed in the pews.

[sourcery]

Jefferson said "men," but would have had no problem using the word "people" instead. That's not the issue. The issue is two intended but false implications of making such a change to the original text:

1. False Implication: Regardless of context, the words "man" or "men" are always meant to exclude female human beings. The Truth: This implication is false, and teaching it to our children will distort their understanding of historical documents, and distort their understanding of history. There are many, many words whose semantics depend quite delicately on context, and there is no way to eliminate that fact from past usage. Eliminating it from modern usage is probably impossible also.
2. False Implication: Jefferson and the other Founders and Framers were sexists who didn't see women as equal to men. The Truth: The cultural norms of the time were different those of today. By the standards of the time, the Founders and Framers were exceptionally enlightened and progressive. Their attitudes and beliefs about women would not fully satisfy the modern feminist movement, but that is hardly either a fair or reasonable standard by which to judge them. But the key point is that there is no evidence that they did not intend the word "men" to be synonymous with "persons" in this particular case. Were that not the case, by what justification could the document be translated into modern English by substituting "persons" for "men"?

[Pan_Yan]

I ran into something similar a few years ago:

In the United States, the people choose their representatives when they vote on Election Day. The representatives make the laws. That way, the U.S. government comes from the people. The people are not “ruled” by their leaders. This system is known as a democracy.

Citizens have duties. They owe loyalty to the government.

Fifth Grade Government Lesson

[SampleMan]

Sorry to say, but this is just small potatoes. The Founders used men to mean “people”, so its not much of a change.

We have a POTUS attempting to completely gut the Constitution, let’s not get distracted.

[madamemayhem]

the founders said “all men are created equal” meaning only the rich, white, landowning males.

[Doe Eyes]

The textbook selectors are in liberal “progressive” (=current code word for communist) Austin.

Right, Texas is not run by Conservatives. Its the Liberals in Austin that call the shots.