Ok, I took Yoda up on his challenge.

The first show is a Founder's Fridays show. I'm hoping I can find some common ground here as I *devour* this kind of stuff. I *loved* the book "1776" that came out relatively recently, HBO's "John Adams", numerous History Channel documentaries, "Myth America", etc. If you pinned me down and made me name one 'hero' of mine, I'd have to say Thomas Jefferson.

So, with that in mind, let's see what Mr. Beck has to say. I'll go segment by segment.

So he introduces the show and talks about his heroes - Franklin, Washington and Adams. Not a bad trio if you ask me.

He goes on to talk about how he had low expectations for the FF shows but he's been surprised. Ok, so maybe his delivery is a little over-the-top but this IS show business.

He talks about his show on black history back then. Seems like there have been a lot of black contributions to the Revolutionary War and those times in general that we don't know about. My first thought was "Crispus Attucks", the first man to die in the Boston Massacre who happened to be black. Then going over all sorts of things that showed the Founders were progressively eliminating slavery.

Something I didn't know - only 3 southern states opposed eliminating slavery so the Constitution basically gave them 20 years to sort it out. Beck doesn't name the states but I'll take him at is word on this. He talks about the 1808 abolotion of the slave trade and how a black preacher in Philadelphia called for 1/1/1808 to be celebrated as a national holiday for that reason. Also how the parishoners rejected the idea of a segregated congregation until some race-baiters got their way years later. ALso how that same black preacher stayed in Philadelphia with a couple of others to tend to the sick during a huge Yellow Fever outbreak that killed 10% of the population.

Then it starts getting more interesting - I'll admit, by now, I'm hooked. I love this kind of stuff.

Then he brings in the author of a book on Black & White history in America. This is where they talk about (in 1820) repealing the law that said new states had to be non-slave states. Time for the break before Glenn goes into something else he wants to talk about...

[break]

The next segment shows reproductions of obituary announcements in the newspapers in the 1790s and how integrated they were (at least in the North). One "freed Negro" is mentioned to have been buried with full military honors, another described as a Pensioner of the United States. They show an original booklet from 1783 by George Washington telling Congress what kind of things need to be done - basically an outline for the first ever Veteran's benefits and there's no mention of race. You're a vetern, simple as that.

Then Beck talks to his guest about other discoveries and, to explain it briefly, he explains that the Confederacy re-wrote the hsitory books - going so far as to hide the portraits of black legislators behind stairwells. This goes along with when Beck looked for and read the Confederate Constitution and basically shines the light on the (in his opinion) fallacy of "it's was all about states rights",, He points out the documents reads "the slave-holding states of the Confederation" and that no state may STOP slaverly from being legal. (If it was all about states rights, shouldn't the states decide?)

I'm finding myself agreeing with all this. Quite the pleasant surprise.

The next segment is about more of what's missing and steps that the guest (David Barton) is doing to restore this history. They talk about textbooks and the infamous dustup over what's happening in Texas. Now, here's where I come to my first disagreement. They talk about how minority representation in the list of historical figures was to go up from 11% under the old textbooks to something like 22 or 25% and that people were getting mad over that.

I respectfully disagree. What got me, at least as far as History was concerned, about the Texas votes was the vote that pushed Jefferson aside. You can't say you're trying to restore history and remove the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence and was our 3rd President.

My *personal* belief is because of the anti-religion-in-government views that Jefferson had. I would imagine that Jefferson's hobby of trying to 'fix' the Bible wouldn't sit too well with Christians. But perhaps the quote "In our practice of Orthodox Christianity I cannot find one redeeming value" or "It matters not if my neighbor worships 20 gods or no gods - it neither picks my pocket not breaks my leg" is more the reason. This doesn't play with the "persecuted Christians" complex that I hear in many areas.

Still, all that being said, I'm still mostly in agreement here.

[break]

Next up is discussion how the 1772 law banning the slave trade contributed to our fight for independence. Rhode Island started with an anti-slavery law, then other colonies including Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. However, King George III said "No way - you're part of the British Empire and, as such, slavery will be legal".

So the obvious solution was to not be part of the empire anymore.

Also shown was an *1855* school textbook about "Colored Heroes" in American History written by the first black to attain elected Federal office (if I heard them right). Who knew this existed? Apparently you can read this on Google Books as it has not been reprinted.

[break]

Ok, they're starting to wrap up now. Talking about Beck trying to put out a textbook that highlights "whats missing" and where the existing textbooks are wrong. He exhorts his audience to teach kids to question, to research and look for themselves. Then he said somethign that really surprised me - question even the very existence of God.

WHERE did THAT come from?

Short segment and final thoughts coming up.

[break]

Just a quick audience member statement saying we have to know our history.

[end]

Ok, not much to disagree with here. I have to say it was a pleasant surprise. Now, if I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd say they want me to come to the same conclusions they do and the omitting of Jefferson when talking about the Texas Textbook Kerfuffle is curious.

If I were in the audience, I would have asked the question:

"Given that you're trying to fill in the gaps that are in the mainstream version of our history, do you have a theory or something more concrete that explains Jefferson's ownership of slaves with his writings that clearly sought to ban such practice?"

So there, Yoda. There's some common ground.