It is possible to believe that the United States is exceptional in the history of the world, a beacon of hope and freedom and opportunity and nobility and might, and yet accept at the same time that the nation has imperfections.
It is possible that the United States would become less exceptional--less free, less open to knowledge, introspection, conscientiousness and wisdom--if even one of its states outlawed a high school U.S. history course on account of its mentioning slavery, discrimination against women, discrimination against minorities, riots, the excesses of a privileged class, neglect of an unprivileged one and assorted other failings.
It is possible to conceive of an America that is exceptional because of its players actually on the field; of an America that is exceptional as well because of the free expression of the chroniclers and critics in the bleachers and press boxes; of an America where the cheerleaders on the sidelines are irrelevant.
And it is possible that, among Americans, certain Republican state legislators in Oklahoma are not exceptional, but average, or below, and that former Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York is right there with them.
Republicans in the Oklahoma Legislature, members of a "Black Robe Regiment" that seeks to tear down the separation of their church and our state, are advancing a bill to do away with funding an Advancement Placement course in U.S. history. They say it tells bad things about our country and fails to extol its exceptionalism.
These advanced placement courses are standardized nationally by a College Board. They are designed to give high-achieving high school students a good start at a good college education. The AP course for U.S. history seeks to acquaint high school students with the concept many conservatives hate about education. That is the part where it seeks to slide from memorization and indoctrination into critical thinking.
These conservatives prefer nationalism and propaganda, meaning government control of a self-serving message that restricts detraction.
Critical thinking would expose higher-achieving youths to different views and visions and invite their discernment as to what is really true, or mostly true, or least dubious.
Here's a critical thinking question: Were so-called Jim Crow laws, prevalent in the American South well into the 20th Century, merely a modified extension of slavery? If so, how and why? If not, why not?
You would be graded on how ably you supported your view, not on whether the right answer was yes or no.
Here's a standard Oklahoma history question: In what year did America declare the War of 1812, which America won easily, of course, as it does all its wars?
An Oklahoma legislative committee has given a do-pass recommendation to a bill declaring that the AP history course could no longer be taught. The vote was 11 Republicans for the ban and four Democrats against it.
Lest you think this narrow-mindedness is unique to neighboring yahoos, consider the yahoo from faraway New York City.
Former Mayor Giuliani spoke at a private fund-raiser the other night for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who seeks to contend for the Republican presidential nomination. Giuliani said he hated to say it, but that Barack Obama didn't seem to love America the way the rest of us love America.
He said Obama wasn't raised like the rest of us.
I'm not sure Giuliani was raised like the rest of us, either.
Anyway, are we merely predestined products of our raising? Or might we manage to achieve independent thinking along the way?
Outside Oklahoma, I mean.
Obama stands accused--by Giuliani and conservatives generally--of not talking the adoring way Ronald Reagan talked about the greatness of America; of worrying too much about being sensitive to the Muslim religion and not enough about leading a holy war against Islamic extremists who murder and rape and pillage and behead; of apologizing too much for America's past imperfections and not celebrating enough, or at all, America's superiority in the world by brain and brawn.
President Reagan's reference to America as a shining city on the hill could be taught in Oklahoma. Mario Cuomo's speech that the president apparently could see only one part of that city from the White House veranda--that would be off limits to the brightest kids of the Sooner State.
And here's a quotation from Obama about America: "That is the true genius of America--a faith in the simple dreams of its people, the insistence on small miracles. That we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door. That we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe or hiring somebody's son. That we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will be counted--at least most of the time."
I suppose it's that last phrase about votes being counted only most of the time that would keep Obama censored from instructional materials for advanced placement history students in Oklahoma.
In Oklahoma, you see, there is no Florida.
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John Brummett's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at jbrummett@arkansasonline.com. Read his blog at brummett.arkansasonline.com, or his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.
Editorial on 02/24/2015