The Superior Express -

I read a book several years back entitled How The Irish Saved Civilization. It basically detailed how books and education were being destroyed in Europe back in the Middle Ages. As different group of people conquered different areas, books were destroyed and most people didn’t know how to read or write. The only places books were still around were the few monasteries strong enough to survive.

Ireland was not connected to the mainland and not even to England. Through its monastic system books were being written and spread throughout Europe. The author contended “The Irish saved Civilization.”

It was part of a four or five volume set of books dealing with civilization at that time.

What reminded me of that book was a book I received as a gift from Ruth McLaughlin of Edgar a short time ago. It also reminded me of the importance of books and the influence they have had in the last thousand years of civilization around the world.

Only a 100 plus years ago, European people were learning to live in the U. S. Great Plains. Learning to read and write was an important goal of theirs. The State of Nebraska in 1913 had a “Dept. of Public Instruction.” Among the help this office gave to local schools was a book called: “Nebraska Special Day Programs.”

The book gave ideas to celebrate or observe special days from Christmas to Lincoln’s birthday to Mother’s Day.

I connect these two events (the Irish and Special Day programs) because of something Mrs. McLaughlin pointed out to me.

In the Nebraska book, there was a short story about slaves in Nebraska. It seems in 1855 there were 16 slaves in Nebraska. By 1860, there were ten. In 1861, the Nebraska legislature voted to abolish slavery in the territory.

Before finishing the slavery story, I have to say I connect the events above with the current happenings in parts of society today.

What is called “Cancel Culture” are activities of certain groups around the nation? You know, the activities relating to the ‘re-naming’ of schools, public buildings, parks, or whatever is named after someone, or something they think did something wrong at some time in their lives. For example: George Washington had slaves, which was wrong. As such, groups want any school, park, city or anything else that carries his name to give that thing a new name.

OK, getting back to the story about slavery in Nebraska.

Nuckolls County was named after a Mr. Stephen Friel Nuckolls. If I understand his history, he moved to Nebraska in 1854 and moved out of Nebraska in 1860. While here he was a businessman involved in a number of enterprises. He also brought a few slaves (four or six) with him when he moved to Nebraska. One slave girl ran away to Chicago and Mr. Nuckolls did all he could to find her. However, his efforts failed and he soon moved out of Nebraska.

I have no idea just why his name was selected to name this parcel of ground we have come to know as “Nuckolls County” but the average person has little knowledge of this Mr. Nuckolls, either of what he did, or that he was a slave owner at one time.

“Cancel Culture.” I understand those “Cancel Culture” people in California have found approximately 60 schools in that state they think should be given new names. People want to rename military bases and other things. (Some of these people even want to rename schools with the name of “Lincoln” because he didn’t do enough, quick enough to free slaves.)

I suggest most people do not know where the names of schools, military bases, etc. come from. It is just a name.

In most cases (if a person’s name) the names were selected based on the “totality” of a person’s life, not just a part of it. Granted, George Washington’s ownership of slaves was a terrible thing, but he did a whole lot of positive things for our country that were good.

When a school, a city, a park was named after President George Washington, you are not praising his ownership of slaves, you are observing what all he did for the founding of the U. S. of A. Most history I’ve read almost always mentioned his ownership of slaves, but never praised him for that action.

“Cancel Culture.” It is not bad to point out the negative things certain people have done in their past lives. But, to eliminate that person all together from history is not right either.

I bring this all up to correlate education (including books) with both history and current times.

The Irish, a thousand years ago, didn’t know what a role they would have in world history by hand printing their books and spreading those books over Europe. Slavery is a nasty and bad part of American history. Sadly, it was not (and is not today) isolated to America. This Nebraska book of 1913 was not (and is not) noted as an outstanding book of information.

It was just another piece of information to add to our understanding of our place in history.

“Cancel Culture” is now part of our history. I hope it will be remembered as that: “being a part” of our history, not becoming a major role in our history.

A O

Speaking of history . . . how do you think the winter of 2020-2021 will be recorded?

The first part of the winter was open and mild. Now, the cold and snow seem to be recording record or near-record figures.

I was going to blame COVID-19 for this sudden change to a nasty winter . . . however, it is really the fault of the ‘Ground Hog.’ He can be blamed for almost anything and maybe we can get those “Cancel Culture” people to work on a new name for him. Better yet, we haven’t heard much from the people in PETA lately. Surely they have an opinion on the subject.

A O