THUNDER DOWN UNDER

John Howard has exceeded himself in his hypocritical and unsubstantiated attack on history teaching. Our racist past a "caricature"? Perhaps he just wants us to forget the White Australia policy, Aborigines not being citizens until the 1960s, the ongoing insult of terra nullius, or Mr Howard's own anti-Asian comments of the late 80s. He attacks the teaching profession for its alleged "relativism," even though Mr Howard thinks it's okay for himself and George Bush to attack another country without provocation, all the time sweeping aside voices of caution and consideration. The final insult is his dismissing the need for a Bill of Rights, due to the potential for "misinterpretation." He can remove our rights all over the place with very poor and broadly-interpretable laws, but anything protecting us is unacceptable. School history taught me to never take on face value anything a politician says, and has alerted me to the cynicism and totalitarian nature of the media management our major parties engage in. No wonder he hates history teaching: it shows the kids what slime our leaders are when they can appreciate the similarities between our own governments and those evil governments of days past.( from www.crikey.com.au )