Land of the Free?

After reading In the Land of the Free and the other posts, I was reminded of my U.S. History class last semester.  I really appreciated this class because my teacher took the time out to sort of right some of the wrong information that we did learn in grade school.  It reminded me most of the phenomena after the civil war where the south wrote information in textbooks that wasn't true, and basically glorified themselves.  This story is also extremely sad because I think it brings to light a lot of information that is often neglected.  When I think of racism I almost always jump to people being racist against black people or Jews because of specific events in history that were so important in school.  For World War II, I used to only really think about the Jews and forget about the various concentration camp-like facilities that we had in America because we were afraid of Japanese-Americans.

On one hand, there are guidelines to get into this country and the officers in the story were doing their job.  But it is so extremely cruel to take a child away from their parents at such a crucial age.  I can't even imagine how the mother, and other mothers, must have felt in situations like this.  Having a Dad that works in the government, I think it's easy for people outside of the government to judge how things work in this country, but I don't think it's an excuse to cover up situations like this in our history.

How about you guys?  Would you rather grow up in school hearing sugar-coated versions of our history and then find out the real truth later, or be taught everything truthfully from a young age?

p.s.
I found this video that goes along with the poems for later this week as well.  It focuses on Angel Island .