A few years ago I visited Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello.

I was very disgusted how every exhibit along the tour, the tour guide would work in some way to disparage Jefferson.

All the things he accomplished and they were obsessed with the fact he had owned slaves. From what I've read he took much better care of them than many others.

I'm not going to defend slavery but it was woven into the fabric of those times.

I see exactly what Trump is going after. Apparently what I saw at Monticello must be compounded at the Smithsonian.

Zed,

You just hate America.

Why not just move away?

Zed,

It has reached the point where all the ranting about slavery and the wrist-slashing remorse and guilt amount to little more than virtue signaling by the left.

But Democrats have lost any claim to virtue.

It started when they made the killing of unborn children part of their party platform, and it has been downhill ever since.

Zed,

TDS has become an obsession far out of proportion to the actual problems of our time.

Zed,

"Once you see Trump as a murderous and thieving sociopath, Bill, you can't unsee that."

What you see when you look at Trump is no concern of mine.

I don't sit around thinking about him the way so many on the left seem to.

It's all politics to me. I'll leave questions of criminal guilt and punishment to law enforcement and the courts.

I have better things to do.

Zed,

"And yet here you are, calling me deranged"

No...just obsessed.

That must get tiring for you constantly thinking about and hating Trump.

Db,

"What makes you more knowledgeable about what to present than the people actually there"

I'm not the history expert. My wife is.

Masters in history and years of in depth research and constant reading about many subjects.

And she's a beautiful human being.

Db,

My Christian faith is where I get my peace.

Db,

"What specifically was her master's thesis on?"

I helped her type it. From what I recall, she researched immigration and integration 100 years ago, along with the causes and background of certain riots.

Db,

It's been years since she wrote it so it be more than 100 years now.

Db,

"Why should that change our mind?"

That's not my intention.

I write mainly to organize and clarify my own thoughts.

Corky,

"Oddly, that only seems to apply to DJT, not Democrats."

That would be a fair criticism if it were true.

I said guilt should be determined by the courts, regardless of which party.

Eff,

"It's not working too well, BJ."

It worked well enough for me.

I voted for Reagan, then supported Democrats for a couple of decades, until Trump.

Writing, reading the posts here, and interacting with others have helped me figure out where my values lie.

Doc,

"MA in History does not an "expert" make; neither, for that matter, does a PhD"

Surely you've known people without formal credentials you still consider experts.

Db,

I suspect immigration and integration would be discussed in a very different tone today.

Time for a pizza party....

Db,

"Hoo-boy."

I'm not always sure whether I'm gay or straight, or liberal or conservative.

So yes, writing has helped.

I've kept a journal since I was 19.

Db,

"I read stuff from full professors who can't figure out how to write a footnote."

How about the fact that my wife tells me in depth history and stories behind the places we visit?

When we take bus tours in America or other countries, she often discusses the area with guides who have lived there all their lives and sometimes tells them things they didn't know.

I don't put too much stock in credentials either. I've known college graduates who didn't seem especially bright, and highly educated people can be surprisingly bad at ordinary things such as your professor who struggles with footnotes.

My wife is a terrible speller. Go figure.

Eff,

"They are a secret police and, as such, have no place whatsoever in a free society."

On a different but related topic, I know what you mean about the danger of government agencies operating behind a wall of secrecy.

I've been following the UFO, or UAP, issue for the last six years or so.

Whatever the ultimate explanation may be, information that was previously hidden or classified is gradually coming out.

More people, including members of Congress, are becoming concerned about the national security implications. In the preliminary UAP report released in 2021 following a six month deadline, the government's UAP Task Force acknowledged that many incidents remained unexplained. It also reported that some objects appeared to make abrupt maneuvers or travel at considerable speeds without any discernible means of propulsion.

The report found no data indicating that the incidents involved Chinese or Russian technology, although it did not completely rule out that possibility.

Db,

"So what's your point?"

It all ties back to someone asking me what qualifies me to decide what should be discussed at tours in Jefferson's home several posts ago.

My complaint was the whole tour was constantly talking about slaves at every stop in the tour. Constant running Jefferson down and not discussing many of his accomphlistments.

All I said was my wife was qualified and likely could teach them a thing or 2.

Ok...I'm done. I need to go pick up pizza.

Corky,

"Like how aliens are tampering with voting machines to rig the Election against Trump!"

You heard about that too?

And what the aliens are putting in our water supply to turn us into zombies.

Snoofy,

"Thomas Jefferson the credit he deserves for taking Sally Hemings to be his sex slave"

Sally Hemings lived with Thomas Jefferson in Paris, where she had greater legal freedom than she would have had in Virginia.

She ultimately chose to return to VA with him after he promised that any children they had together would be freed.

Given those facts, do you still think it's accurate to describe her as his "sex slave"?

Doc,

"Jefferson owned Hemings"

Not in Paris where their legal system didn't recognize it.

Dan,

"Are you actually suggesting staying behind in France was a legitimate choice for a penniless woman of that era?"

Sally Hemings was not an inexperienced woman suddenly abandoned in a foreign country. She had lived in an elite household, learned some French, acquired skills as a lady's maid, and had her brother James in Paris.

Most importantly, she had a legal path to freedom there that she did not have in Virginia.

Staying would certainly have been difficult and uncertain, but it was not impossible like you are portraying it.

Doc,

"don't take anything I've written here as dissing your historian wife"

You're not a jerk...I know.

Doc,

"Clio's passionate disciples can make for interesting company"

Yes...they do.

John,

My original point was that I visited Monticello and the tour guides were fixated on one topic and failed to mention all his other accomplishments.

That's not supporting slavery or defending him owning slaves.

Snoofy,

Jefferson's ownership of slaves is history, and I think everyone can agree that he could have freed them all but chose not to.

How many times must that sentence be repeated before everyone's obsession with the subject is satisfied?

Other than his slaves and his sex life, do you know anything else about him that is interesting?

Doc,

My wife just told me that Virginia had a law on the books, put in 1806, that freed slaves were required to leave the state within one year.

Jefferson complained that the law made emancipation difficult.

If Jefferson had freed his slaves, they would have been required to leave their families.

Yes....life with Clio's disciples is always interesting.

Truth,

Virginia law required emancipated slaves to leave the state, which meant that emancipation could separate people from their families and communities.

Acknowledging that complication is not a moral defense of slavery, selfishness or Jefferson.

I have a BBQ to get ready for.

Db,

"Does your wife know that the Civil War's roots are tied to a division within a college in southwestern Virginia in the 1840s?"

Here's an interesting Civil War tidbit.

A man named Wilmer McLean had the distinction of having the war begin and end on his property.

The First Battle of Bull Run was fought near his home in Manassas, VA. To get away from the fighting, he moved to Appomattox Court House, VA.

Then in 1865 Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in McLean's parlor, where the surrender documents were signed.

McLean is quoted as saying,

"The war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor."

Truth,

"You're saying Jefferson couldn't afford to set his slaves up in MD or PA"

Too bad you weren't around to give Jefferson advice.

You might have even changed the course of history.

Enough of this.