History Being Rewritten, BCE / CE

I was reading a post by Mover Mike and noticed that yet another portion of history was being rewritten in order to avoid any reference to Jesus Christ.

“The artifacts from indians on the Columbia river and later artifacts from the Etruscan and Roman empires are all dated "BCE" or "CE". We asked one of the curators as we were leaving, "What's with the BCE and CE?" Didn't it used to be "BC" and "AD"? Turns out it did. Seems some groups were upset with "Before Christ" and "Anno Domino - In the year of our Lord" . Now artifacts are labeled Before the Common Era (BCE) or Common Era (CE). It's the same dividing line between BCE and CE as BC and AD. I don't know how they explain that!”

Two of my nephews are in the Air Force. They were visiting on a short leave from duty and doing some family catching up. These young men are polite and had been brought up in the old school of being respectful of their elders. All that being said, they couldn’t resist making fun of my “retirement home sunglasses”; calling them, “BCD’s”. My eyes are very sensitive to light and I wear the kind often worn my very old people, they fit over my regular glasses and have side panes too. These are great since I do so much freeway driving and these sunglasses reduce the forward and the side glare while permitting a full panoramic view. So, you might ask, “What do the letters BCD stand for?” Well, I didn’t know either and had to ask, “Birth Control Devices”. It seems that if you want to guarantee never to get a date with a pretty woman you could wear a pair of sunglasses like mine. I am also hard of hearing, so they may have said, “BCG’s”, for “Birth Control Glasses”, in either case it would be a waste of time to go strutting my stuff. My son put in his two cents worth by asking, more of a pleading, “Dad, tell me you don’t wear those when you’re not driving.” I suppose I still embarrass my kids by being me.

At no time did it ever occur to me that the initials BCG might stand for “sunglasses made before the birth of Christ”, not once. Now, I have been asked if some of the tools in my locksmith truck were hand me downs from when I got off of Noah’s ark; in which case these tools would have been BCLT’s, which don’t taste quite as good as a BLT. I quit eating tomatoes this past year when I found that they were related to problems I have with psoriasis so what good is a bacon and lettuce sandwich?

I think the curators who removed the reference of BC and AD have taken the liberty of rewriting history. I will continue to use BC and AD.

Now, they might be able to convince me that the time period starting around the 1960’s, that time when our judiciary saw fit to start removing any and all references to religion in our schools; that could easily be referred to as a “common era”, “common” as characterized by a lack of privilege because our children no longer may pray, lacking refinement, and completely unprincipled as can be demonstrated by a great many youth who have no ties to our great heritage. Surely our society has taken a course that will eventually be devoid of any relationship with the Author of our rights, our privileges if you will, if we permit these minor alterations of facts to continue.

I think it would be a good time to send off a short letter to our local museum curators to remind them that funding for their work comes from a lot of us who wear BCG’s and have a deep and unfailing memory of what the Meridian of Time stands for. If I put it in the mailbox by noon it might get there before the Second Coming.

I have added links for blogs that I wrote back to back on rewriting history:

http://tfsternsrantings.blogspot.com/2005/01/so-help-us-god.html

http://tfsternsrantings.blogspot.com/2005/01/who-were-these-men.html

Here is a copy of the letter sent out via the "snail":

March 21, 2005

Houston Museum of Natural History
One Hermann Circle Drive
Houston, Texas 77030

Subject: The use of BCE / CE versus BC / AD

To: Director or Curator

Dear Sir,

I will keep this short, having attached my sentiments on the matter in the form of a blog that I wrote and posted this same day. Until today I was unaware that the use of the date system BC / AD had been abandoned by most museums; it having been replaced with the more “politically correct” BCE / CE. I find that such a change is nothing less than an attempt to rewrite history by eliminating any and all reference to Jesus Christ’s birth being the meridian of time. I would hope that people of character were in charge of the sacred honor of preserving history at a museum rather than bowing to the “PC” mentality that has taken overtaken so many other aspects of our society.

Please take a moment to read the articles that are available via the URL links that I have supplied within the text of the attached “blog”. My family has long supported the arts, either through anonymous monetary contributions or through our favorable remarks.

Thoughtfully,



T. F. Stern
******* *************
Houston, Texas *****

TFS/tfs

CC: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston