The Other Story

Most of us heard this story in our elementary school:  George Washington as a boy chopped down a cherry tree in his father’s orchard.  When his father asked who destroyed the tree, George replied humbly that he couldn’t tell a lie—he did it.  Because of his truthfulness, George wasn’t punished.   To us this is a nice story making the case for truthfulness, but there is another story, much stronger, about the unwavering leadership that this man employed under the most difficult conditions in the forging of a new nation.

We also heard this story about Abraham Lincoln:  As a young man operating a store, Lincoln failed to give a customer the right change by a few cents.  When he realized his mistake, he walked several miles through the rain to give the customer the few pennies owed.  While this story makes a case for honesty, the other story—that of Lincoln’s courage in keeping the Union together and ending the scourge of slavery—must also be told.

Who knows whether these anecdotal accounts actually occurred, but the lesson of honesty was an important one to impress on young minds.  The other stories come later when the young minds can comprehend the more complex issues.

I am reminded of a radio program that I heard frequently in the 70’s and 80’s called “The Rest of The Story.”  Aired daily and narrated by Paul Harvey, it was a series of vignettes telling previously unheard stories, usually about some prominent historical figure.  I relished these stories!  Were they all true?   I really didn’t care.  Just hearing new twists added to things I already knew was exhilarating.

Currently there is a TV series entitled “Untold History of the United States,” the work of film director Oliver Stone.  I watched one segment of the series and formed a quite negative reaction.  The untold stories seemed to be derogatory to the U.S., telling about blunders, some stupid, some malicious.  Although Stone claims to have fact check supporting his assertions, I remain skeptical.  Having said that, I am curious about new historical information that might appear in these videos. 

It should be no surprise that history is often recorded incompletely or sometimes dead wrong.  I am doing historical research on Santa Barbara North County, and I have found numerous incidents of conflicting information among sources.  Newspaper accounts often don’t tell the story as written in history books; history books themselves sometimes conflict with each other.

We history buffs find it an interesting and stimulating challenge to find the other stories behind historic events or personalities.   That’s why my curiosity might drive me to watch more of the Oliver Stone videos.