Well life at school will be changing. My colleague of seven years has suddenly retired. Not totally surprising since he feels our program will be going the way of the dodo very soon. So if no one else abandons me, we will have two new staff in the ILC with me being the oldtimer. I will miss Joseph's expertise in finding speakers and other nonacademics that enhanced our students' lives.

I am finally digging into An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz. nearing the halfway mark and I am quickly running out of post it bookmarks. Learning so much, I have to thank James Loewen and Howard Zinn for recommending her book. It isn't that I thought Native Americans were treated well by the conquering white hoards, but it far worse than I could imagine. Ok, maybe not, but worse than I hoped. I also think my people may have been a part of the first wave of marauders to come to America. Ulster-Scots seem to fit into what Ancestry pinpoints as my ancestral origins. Reading about the Ulster-Scots caused me to take a quick look at one of my trees in Ancestry. My ancestors came to the Carolinas, the low country and spread out from there. I guess I will have to pay to find out more. I did find a few who fought for the blue in the Civil War, which is nice to see. Also a couple who fought in the war of 1812. Like my blog, I have a hard time spending a lot of time doing research on these ancestors.

On this July 4th, I find it a bit disconcerting about the posts lambasting thanking the troops. Also the friends on Facebook who counter my posts with fake news. I decided no response is best since you can't persuade someone who believes the fake stuff with a showering of facts or even a question about what they have posted. Facebook is an interesting place, I do try to post only what I have researched/checked for truth. Sometimes I make a booboo, buy mostly I think I am doing a good job of practicing what I will teaching in the Fall in regards to fact checking.

I am saddened that one of my go to historians Jared Diamond may not be as well-researched as I had thought. I always had an inkling his explanations were too simplistic and now as I read Dunbar-Ortiz I see where I went wrong in believing what he said about indigenous populations and their lack of "cargo." The indigenous definition of cargo before being conquered is far different than what the man on Papua, New Guinea asked of Diamond. "Why you white people have so much cargo, and we New Guineans have so little?" This was the phrase that sent Diamond on his quest, a quest tainted by a Eurocentric view of what cargo is and was. I have little problem with my views being smashed by facts and history. I love learning and someday I hope to set my learning into words. I guess this blog could be a step in that direction.