Day 171 - a Monday-ish Tuesday

Today is the 3rd day of the 25th week, the 20th day of the 6th month, the 171st day of 2023 [with only 187 shopping days until Christmas], and:

• International Nystagmus Awareness Day (( one thing I will say for these 'awareness' days - I sure am learning a lot about the ills that assail us ))
• International Tennis Day - a somewhat ironic date given today is also the anniversary of the Tennis Court Oath when in 1789 the French Estates-General swore in Versailles not to disband until they had formed a new constitution.  Also on this day - Gussie Moran shocked the crowds at Wimbledon by wearing the first short tennis dress in 1949
• Lambrusco Day
• National American Eagle Day - oddly?  Neither Alaska nor California have recognized this day, and that is where the most eagles are to be found in the wild.  Why today?  in 1782, Congress approved the Great Seal of the United States of America with the bald eagle as its symbol
• National Cherry Tart Day
• National Hike With a Geek Day
• National Ice Cream Soda Day
• National Kouign Amann Day
• National Vanilla Milkshake Day 
• New Identity Day - I think that most people now celebrate this on September 16th
• Plain Yogurt Day - this is one holiday I won't be celebrating because I think eating yogurt all by itself tastes terrible 
• Toad Hollow Day of Thank You
• West Virginia Day - a US state since 1863
• World Productivity Day
• World Refugee Day
• Earliest possible date for the summer solstice in the Northern hemisphere and the winter solstice in the Southern hemisphere, and its related observance - this year it is tomorrow

Quote of the day:

"The wisest rout to a successful solution to nearly any problem begins with understanding its history."

~ David McCullough, American popular historian

I ran across the story of Cudjo Lewis today, totally by accident, while browsing in a social media feed and two things struck me about his story.  First, I marveled that I  had never heard of him before.  Granted, I am not an American history major, but I to have never heard of this in all these years seems a bit off.  After all, we never learned about the Black Wall Street in school, and  I had learned about that.  The second thought?  This is precisely the kind of story that in at least 18 states, students will never hear about because these states have banned Critical Race Theory from their academic curriculums with more trying to join the parade.   

Seems a shame when an entire history is lost simply because it makes someone uncomfortable.  Makes you think long and hard about the stories of the past that we accept today as 'fact', doesn't it?  

It is unfortunate, however, when that discomfort with accepting what is recorded as fact becomes a conspiracy theory that creates an entirely alternate reality.

And that is what education is supposed to do - teach students to accept that we don't always know exactly what happened and sometimes doing your research can turn up really uncomfortable information versus accepting some 'theory' because it sounds vaguely plausible or aligns with what you want to believe.  

Whether on a global scale or in your own home, how are you going to solve a problem if you can't understand what caused it?