1) Should we alter the historical narrative to make its victims feel better?

It’s #coffeetime
#ColumbusDay
Monday, October 8, 2018
2) I remember when the local school changed Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day.

In-di-gen-ous.

Hard to spell.
3) So I guess this is how you have to teach it now.
4) To many people, Columbus Day is immoral because it essentially celebrates a greed that led to mass murder.
5) To many people, it is incredibly morally offensive that we celebrate herding the Native Americans into reservations where they live in squalor.
6) But then the obvious question comes up.
7) If you feel bad about doing something wrong, why don’t you fix it?
8) The people who are offended by “Columbus Day” would like to make reparations...of some kind.
npr.org/templates/stor…
9) 10/12/2009, @NPR — Rep. John McCoy (D-Wash.) on the a “resolution” to “formally apologize”—

“It’s an acknowledgement of what happened during all those years.”
“In essence, we're correcting history.”
Does the apology actually do anything concrete though? How about money?

“there is no money tied to this, but the apology is important.”
12) (sorry, the above Tweets were 10 and 11) —

Of course, the question then becomes...how much is an apology alone worth?
13) I mean, it’s easy to say you’re sorry.
14) I have a better idea.
15) If we truly feel sorry that we rampaged across another man’s land...why don’t we just give it back?

Oh wait. We don’t want to go that far. NOBODY EVER SUGGESTED THAT. Don’t quote me.
16) You see, the “big debate” over Columbus Day as a holiday is not about an actual thing.

Only its representation.

It’s a grossly offensive gesture aimed only at assuaging White guilt, while constantly retaining its privilege.

Eg, we always remain heroes.
17) Rep. McCoy acknowledges the limited value of an apology for his Native American constituents.

“Well, among most of the tribes that I work with, we don't put any emphasis on today. It's kind of like just another day.”

Right? Everybody has to eat.
18) But what about the atrocities, Sir?

What about the “Indian boarding schools?”
19) “The students were punished if they spoke their own language....they were beaten...abused. The girls were sexually abused. And it was just a horrible life.”

Here is a picture of students at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, PA, around 1900.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_…
20) You see, the people who introduce these “resolutions” are politicians.
21) A warrior would say, more honestly: We came here and conquered the land, and it wasn’t pretty, but history is the story of conquering land.”
22) That isn’t to justify atrocities, at all.

It is to argue that honesty is more respectful to the conquered than a patronizing pat on the back.
23) As you all know, my family suffered badly in the Holocaust.
24) This is my Bubbie, Mathilda Stroli (née Mandel) (RIP) giving video testimony about what happened to her during the Holocaust.
25) Her sister Vicky did not live to testify.

She got murdered.

yvng.yadvashem.org/nameDetails.ht…
26) Vicky was a Gemini.
27) Every year, growing up, I went to my grandparents’ house in Toronto.

My Zayde (grandfather, RIP) had a kosher supermarket there.

dbs.bh.org.il/image/-strolis…
28) Today it’s known by another name.

But when my Zayde was alive, his store, and the liver knishes he sold there, were pretty well-known.

(Knish: a pastry filled with something.)

koshersamurai.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/the…
dannielleblumenthal.com/2011/12/medita…
homeindisarray.com/2013/03/chicke…
29) When I was growing up, and we visited my grandparents in Toronto, the topic of the Holocaust was 100% off-limits.
30) When I was in my late teens, Zayde told me very vaguely, but frighteningly, about what had happened to him.
31) He didn’t lie. But he didn’t tell me everything either.

It was many years after his death that I watched the tapes and found out the truth. medium.com/@DrDannielle/a…
32) The story is pretty bad. It involves a brutal gang rape.

motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=…
33) To this day I cannot watch my grandmother’s tapes.
34) To this day I can’t deal with what may have happened to my grandmother in Auschwitz. cnn.com/2011/WORLD/eur…
35) My father prefers to say that she escaped death miraculously 4 times; that she worked as a “bookkeeper” for the Nazis in the camp; that she was “contemptuous” of them.
36) But if you press him, he will also say that my grandmother met Mengele (pictured here with George H. Bush? not sure of that) on the way out.

And that Mengele mocked her and said she would be barren.

That my Zayde married her knowing what had happened.
37) What we need is not an apology.

What we need is to find out the real, historical truth.

And to make sure that the perpetrators of atrocities never have that power again.

(End.)

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Dannielle (Dossy) Blumenthal PhD

Dannielle (Dossy) Blumenthal PhD Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @DrDannielle

Sep 3, 2020
I think this Tore is a fake. She has been posting slides from a presentation widely leaked and reported on.
thevisualized.com/twitter/timeli…
thevisualized.com/twitter/timeli…
edwardsnowden.com/docs/doc/the-a…
techdirt.com/articles/20140…
She talks about being a localization specialist because they're good at blackmail. That doesn't make any sense. Localization has to do with creating strategies that appeal to local populations. From a development perspective it is correlated with resilience. There is no magic.
In her words: "What I did was something called Localization or L-10N. So localization strategy is you find a group of people...you kind of try to get in their mind...you use that to your advantage...so if I wanna blackmail you...I will know your deepest, darkest fears"

BS
Read 12 tweets
Sep 1, 2020
#StandWithSophie - are we dealing with a coverup of child sex trafficking?

8/31/2020
archive.is/fELVl

9/1/2020 update 1
archive.is/liAK5

--> You are here: 9/1/2020 update 2
"Sophie, 9 yo, has disclosed...domestic violence, sexual grooming, and most recently molestation/rape in her primary residence. Her father is fighting for her life while her abusers pull every resource to get their hands back on her."
archive.is/M8A8q#selectio…
"The biological mother, according to Sophie, is a part of the sexual abuse and is encouraging it....We have been dealing with CPS, Law Enforcement, Lawyers, DFPS, Forensic interviews, and several doctors "
Read 39 tweets
Oct 9, 2018
1) Cannibalism (claim) - Mengele (Source: “Erik Orion”)

thebushconnection.com/mengele.html
2)
3) “The White Angel of Death Dr. Josef Mengele 2001. Notice the large red anthrax sore on Mengele's swollen left hand.”
Read 63 tweets
Oct 9, 2018
1) Starting a near-midnight thread, basically to help me collect my thoughts on a variety of related topics.
2) I would really prefer to just do research and then go out with that. But oh well
3) When you see all this I think you'll understand why my head is exploding a little. And it's hard to just stay focused on one thing.
Read 79 tweets
Oct 7, 2018
1) “Am I my sister’s keeper?”

“I AM my sister’s keeper!”

It’s #BibleStudyCoffeeTime.
Sunday, October 7, 2018.
2) Please bear with me while I plug in
3) This week in synagogue we read about Cain and Abel.
Read 74 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(