Here's my nominee for Teachable Moment of the Year:
Pres. Obama's new children's book, Of Thee I Sing, includes historical figures that the President thinks are worth his daughters' notice. Here's the list:
Georgia O’Keeffe
Albert Einstein
Jackie Robinson
Sitting Bull
Billie Holliday
Helen Keller
Maya Lin
Jane Addams
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Neil Armstrong
César Chávez
Abraham Lincoln
George Washington
The Fox Nation website notes that "his most controversial choice may be Sitting Bull, who defeated Custer at Little Bighorn."
The original Fox Nation piece (very short) appeared under the headline "Obama Praises Indian Chief who Killed U.S. General." Note that the headline has been "corrected for historical accuracy" to now read "defeated" US General, after two noted western historians, Robert Utley and Paul Hutton, pointed out that Sitting Bull, already well into middle age, did not actually participate in the fighting. Hutton and others note that Sitting Bull might be offended to be called an American (not having seen the original book, I don't know for sure that Obama calls him that, either.) Note also the "salute" in the column to the right to Native American History Month.
That's just the beginning of this rich historical feast, however. Check out Andrea Stone's piece on AOL:
Stone points out the troubled life of Billie Holliday - the controversial art of Georgia O'Keefe - I don't know if anyone has yet pointed out that Helen Keller, another of Obama's choices, was a committed socialist, friend of birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger, co-founder of the ACLU or that Jane Addams might have (gasp!) loved other women. Is it churlish to note that Washington owned slaves, or that Einstein contributed to the creation of nuclear weapons?
Trivia test: how many of these figures have FBI files?
History: the gift that keeps on giving . . . or is that Fox?
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