Response to Lynn Cheney's "Politics in the Schoolroom"

Even before the article begins, there is already warning as to the conservative undertones that make up Lynn Cheney's argument. Despite being moderate in the world of politics, I agree with much of what Cheney has presented.
I noticed this in high school, that the history lessons I was taught in elementary school were more positive and celebratory of once American "heroes." Christopher Columbus was an icon, he was the man who discovered America and opened the gates to colonization of this foreign and somewhat inhabited land. But once eleventh grade hit, Ole Chris was no longer such a great guy. He was considered a fool that landed in the wrong country and destroyed the land that we now call our home. The stories became distorted, and what I had once believed to be true in fifth grade became mixed up in high school. Who was I to believe? The textbooks were published by the same Houghten Mifflin, so what's the change for?
It is very true that these days, the all-American classroom is housing anti-American thoughts. These teachers may or may not realize that they have complete control over an 8 year old's tender brain, therefore they now have the opportunity to create an army of America-haters. They teach that all of the reform and -izations of the past are greedy and that we have torn up the land that once belonged to the natives. Oh boo hoo, is what I say to that.
Does no one realize that yes, we are living here. We have it pretty good here in the old U.S. of A., so why is it taught to hate all of the progress we've made. Sure we've had some wars, some were justified like the Civil War (hey, just because the South housed slaves doesn't mean that the North wanted it. Who won? The North, people!), World War II (Granted if we hadn't been affected we probably wouldn't have jumped in. Why get mixed up in the problem?), but then we have also had our follies like Vietnam. Whatever, the point is that every country makes mistakes, so why put such a negative light on America and feel so sorry for those who have at once wronged us. Japan for instance. Cheney brings up Hiroshima. Why do you think America bombed them? To get back at them for Pearl Harbor. An eye for an eye man, that's how it should be.
At some point in the essay, Cheney begins to ramble on about Feminists and the role of a woman shouldn't just be in the kitchen. I'm a woman, I agree. Hey I wouldn't be in college voicing my opinion on this blog if it weren't for all those women getting fed up with the male dominated school system and finally doing something to oppose it. Unfortunately women are still oppressed today with dirty comments made to them by the males that surround them in society. Whether the comment be a jab at their role in the world, the lower pay in the workplace, or just flat out sexual connotation, men have tried very hard to put women down. I don't know if it's because their egos and testosterone have flooded their brains and have kept them from thinking clearly, but to this day even I as a woman in college am hearing the same old bull that boys joked about in high school. I'm sure the train of thought that men are better than women has been stifled, for the most part, but Cheney brings up the fact that to this day there is still some of that old fashioned oppression still circulating today.