It was an ordinary day. Preparing to write a story about one of my favorite historical figures, Thaddeus Stevens, The Old Commoner, when I remembered writing a story about him not too long ago so I began to search to see what I had written so that I wouldn't bore you with another story with the same content. Seems I have written close to 20 stories about Thaddeus Stevens since I began my blog years ago. So...I thought to myself...should I write yet another one? And...I decided I would write yet another one, but keep it short and only include new information which you have not read before. I found information I had not written about in the past in Lancaster Newspaper's "Perspective Section" of the Sunday News. The story published today was titled "Old Commoner" and was written by Mr. Jeffrey L. Hudson who was a former social studies teacher at Lampeter-Strasburg High School and a member of Marietta Borough Council. Mr. Hudson also co-produces a podcast called "History, Politics and Beer." As a teacher at Manheim Township High School, I taught Industrial Arts. Social Studies would have been the last thing I would have tried to teach since Latin and Social Studies were my two least favorite courses when I was a student at one time at MTHS. Almost didn't get into college since my grades in Social Studies were rather poor. I must admit though that I loved reading Mr. Hudson's story in today's newspaper. Perhaps I may have enjoyed "History" had I had Mr. Hudson as a teacher after reading his story that said, "The world of the past is not our own...even though it helped to create ours...and its reconstruction requires imagination as well as facts. History shouldn't be a mere recitation of names and dates; neither should it be a selection of events picked and tortured into shape to fit some preconceived narrative. Hey...I really liked this guy! Well, Mr. Hudson went on to tell of Thaddeus Stevens, the young state lawmaker, and how he won even though the election judge had lost the vote tallies from one of the wards and a mob, some armed with Bowie knives and double-barrel pistols stormed into the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to prevent his seating. When the Whig candidates from Philadelphia were seated, others rushed the floor of the Senate calling for Steven's blood. Stevens escaped by jumping out a window about six feet above the street. And...if you hadn't known from your history class in high school, Stevens was born with a club foot! The incident was known as "The buckshot war" since state militia members carried firearms loaded with buckshot cartridges. Wow! If I had learned that when I was in high school, I may have done well in my history classes. My history teachers never told us about that! Then again...maybe I was absent that day. Well, Mr. Hudson went on to tell quite a few other stories about Thaddeus Stevens that were very interesting and which I had never heard before. The last sentence in Mr. Hudson's story told that "He (Thaddeus Stevens) would soon begin in earnest the great struggle that would consume the rest of his life---his fight for abolition and human rights for all, regardless of race." After reading Mr. Hudson's story I learned that history really can be interesting....but perhaps not for me! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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