In the mid-70s, a billboard at I-465 and I-70 on the west side greeted east-bound traffic: “God, guns & guts made America great/Let’s keep all 3!” This is an example of falsehoods repeated so often as to deter question of their validity. 1) “God” is not in The Constitution. At the 1787 1/5

Constitutional Convention, Franklin’s motion to start each day w/prayer did not come to a vote. To say “Freedom of & from religion made this country different” is more accurate, but bogs down a snappy aphorism aimed to appeal to people with short attention spans. 2/5

(2) On “guns” either (a) guns owned & used by the gov’t made us gr8 but tyrants have used guns, as indigenous peoples and slaves, who were terrorized, learned; or (b) right of individuals to have guns, a relatively recent interpretation of 2A. That has zip to do with greatness. 3/5

(3) “Guts”: sounds gr8, but when & how? For every D-day (6/6/44) there are dozens of times we were bad guys (Mexican-American War, routing of WWI veterans demonstrating for benefits in DC, etc.) Hoosier Eugene V Debs had guts and was imprisoned for his opposition to WWI. 4/5

The billboard is long gone, but its snappy little aphorism w/clauses of falsehoods lives on. No wonder people on the far right hate history. Truth is messier and shows shortcomings, as well as good things, of the USA. 5/5