Colonel Brandon had his say—marching with
Washington’s troop toward the Brandywine.
I say… Had Washington’s troops actually listened to that fellow
They’d have knocked him on his rear.
The story was made with today’s so called
“History.”
What we claim to know about the revolutionary war.
The fact is, it seems like rhetoric.
But… using that rhetoric
I wanted to show something good.
The fact that America is worth fighting to preserve.
The whims of an author cannot change history.
We can, rather, just put in our moral say
By the details we have given to us.
How the historical data says Washington’s troops were misers
When, historically, they probably believed very strongly
In the cause of the revolution.
I, rather, can have my say about what I want.
I can reinvent history.
I can rework truth
In order to present another truth.
Stories and works of fiction are never literally true.
In fact, they often get very details so wrong
It cannot be denied that the whole work seems flawed.
But, trade in one analogy for another
The truth is still in there without the details being accurate.
The truth is we, America today,
Are jaded and would not stand by Washington.
The fact is that today,
Washington and Adams and Franklin
Would be trolls on the internet
And nothing more than a blogger or a haphazard writer
Believing the lies about history we are taught.
Why do I bring this to bear?
Because the whole of the truth is that truth
In stories are present today, the age they are written.
And not in the past.
When we dramatize the past
With our stories, often it is today we are talking about.
When we watch the idyllic past
It is the past they are talking about.
Funny, isn’t it?
How art captures the ideal, and the truth
Of the age it is written in.
B. K. Neifert 