Go ahead. Translate this. Can't? Hah, neither could most of the population of Assyria during the 9th century BCE. Here I sit at 61 years old and there are still things to shove into my brain. What this brain decided is that I AM NOT going to try to learn how to write in cuneiform, but I do appreciate the very meticulous way the Assyrians kept their government records during the height of the reign of the Assyrian kings.
I don't really want to talk about Assyrians, but how my brain works. In Judiasm 101 class, we were talking about the destruction of the Temple and the destruction of the second Temple. Then, about all the peoples who swooped into what is now Israel and conquered, kidnapped, and deported so many Jews. My mind immediately leapt to, "Why?" I wanted to understand the other side of things. So, I signed up for a class on Coursera. Seems mankind has always been an ass since there has been a way to record events. Somebody is always wanting what someone else has. Someone always wants to control the flow of information.
There's a lot of dissension about Assyrian King Sennacherib's siege on Jerusalem (was it once or was it twice?), but in 701 BCE, the siege on Jerusalem failed. Biblically, an angel saved the day; from the Assyrian perspective, things were quite different. Isn't that the way? Two sides to a story. Imagine.
Which get me thinking about the situation in the US today with people like the governor of Florida who is trying to stifle a two-or-more-points-of-view of history by insisting certain elements of history be taken out of textbooks in the schools. Republicans like him seem to have the corner on insisting we pretty up our history and make white man heroic instead of just a man who did good and did things that weren't so good. There is enough room for all points of view to be expressed without vilification of the people of today (not that there isn't a too often earned need to vilify). You just have to put your big girl pants on and realize it's not about you. That skewed view of how we should impart our historical legacy is going to destroy our country. You heard it here first.
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