Lynne Cheney
EXCLUSIVE
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- Bestselling Author
- Former Co-host CNN’s Crossfire Sunday
- Chair, National Endowment for the Humanities (1986-1993)
- Second Lady of the United States (2001-2009)
- Hudson Library and Historic Society, Ohio
Making Patriots
How can we raise our children to understand the freedoms they enjoy and to appreciate the blessings of this country? “Tell them thrilling stories from America’s past,” says Mrs. LYNNE CHENEY, explaining how to make history come alive for students of all ages. “Few tales are more wondrous than that of the founders seeking independence and - against the odds - winning it. Few plots are more thrilling than their deciding to establish representative government and - against the odds - succeeding. And few stories are more heartening than the way that the idea of equality has expanded over two centuries, including more and ever more of us in the phrase ‘we the people.’”
The Past as Personal
One of the most pleasurable ways to learn history, Mrs. LYNNE CHENEY says, is to explore family history. She talks of the lessons she learned while writing Blue Skies, No Fences, a memoir of growing up in Wyoming and a tribute to her forbears, brave souls who made the westward journey. “The American past is filled with heroes and heroines who have no monuments and whose names aren’t in the textbooks,” she says, “but we are most surely indebted to them.” She offers encouragement and advice to those who want to discover the heroes and heroines in their own stories.
Telling the Truth
In our schools and colleges, students now learn that truth doesn’t exist. There are only opinions, the thinking goes, and the most powerful establish what we believe. As in her book Telling the Truth, Mrs. LYNNE CHENEY explains this viewpoint’s effect on American life in fields ranging from education, to politics and the media, where journalists commonly maintain that objectivity is an illusion, “a pretentious fantasy,” in the words of one. With provocative examples, Cheney makes clear the devastating impact on society of abandoning the notion of objective reality—and the importance of encouraging the pursuit of truth.
