“Hey Ralph ! Are you ready to get a Re-Education in History ?” Fred asked haughtily.
“This should be real interestin‘, Fred. You have been blatherin’ on and on about this little project of yours for years now,” Ralph replied.
“Well, it’s taken me years to accumulate and research all of these materials with a fine tooth comb,” Fred replied shortly.
“Well, you have certainly got a Warehouse full of Redacted Historical Materials that I’m starin’ at. You gotta’ a fan or an air conditioner ? It’s already pretty hot in here, and it’s 90 degrees outside this metal building already,” Ralph queried as he wiped the sweat off of his face with a handkerchief.
“Yes, I got one of those large shop fans just last week to put in the back here. I’ll get it turned on and then we can get down to business,” Fred said as he moved quickly to the right side of the large box laden and cluttered room.
The moment the large, loud fan got turned on loose paper fluttered and flew up all over the room.
Both Fred and Ralph ran around gathering a stray paper here and there.
“Fred, why are most of these papers blackened, and show no wording at all or have these little white rectangles here and there with little glitches of wording ?”
“These are all Redacted Historical accounts, Ralph. Whoever was in charge of this information decided what they wanted The Public to know about what went on, and what they didn’t want them to know,” Fred said as he faced his friend with an armful of disheveled papers.
“Why didn’t you just leave all of this on your computer ? Wouldn’t that have simplified things ?” Ralph asked as he laid his armful of scattered papers onto the long table in the middle of the room. “And at least your house is air conditioned.”
“I didn’t want to get hacked and possibly lose what I found,” Ralph said curtly.
Ralph shook his head in understanding and said, “Alright, give me a sampling of your Redacted Historical findings then, my man.”
“Did you know that the Civil War was a skirmish, not a full blown War, over peanut farms and cotton patches ?” Fred asked seriously.
Ralph looked at his friend speculatively, but bit his tongue. “Can you show me those Redacted pages ?”
“Yes, I can !” Fred said excitedly as he fumbled through one of his large boxes and pulled out a handful of pages.
Ralph took the papers offered by Fred and looked through them all.
“I can see why you reached that Conclusion, after reviewing this handful of papers, Fred, because they are all thoroughly Redacted except for the words, ‘Civil War fought due to’, and then this blackened page reveals the words ’a Skirmish’, and then several blackened pages later this short phrase, over peanut farms and cotton patches‘. Everything else is the Blacked Out UnKnown,” Ralph said earnestly.
“See, what did I tell you ? Redacted History is not Refracted and Distracted, Deluded and Colluded History as you said it was the other day when we were having a drink over at Shanahan’s. Each little geometric white rectangle of a word here or a phrase of words there is a true Revelation and Proclamation of the events that occurred out of the Known made UnKnown Black,” Fred said emphatically.
“And look at these Redacted pages regarding World War II. They reveal that the United States got into World War II over the Japanese Emperor’s yen for pineapples. These Redacted pages imply that he sent his Naval War Ships to Hawaii to conquer the islands so that he could take over all of the Pineapple Plantations and Operations for his own use. That it was all one big misunderstanding, having nothing to do with Hitler or Mussolini or Fascism or War Mongering Autocratic Dictators. That for the United States of America it was War over Pineapple Markets !” Ralph proclaimed.
“And you believe all of this Redacted Salad you’ve put together, Fred ? You have never questioned your snippets of rectangular Calculations and Conclusions ?” Ralph asked bluntly.
“What’s to question. The Truth is revealed right here in all of these blacked out pages with their little white rectangles of information leaping out of the Blackened Void to reveal a whole new Universe of Realities,” Fred said implacably.
Ralph paused before saying, “Fred, it is hotter than a firecracker in this metal box we’re standin’ in. How long have you been spendin’ hours pourin’ over all of these Blacked Out Realities of Redacted History without that fan ? “Cause I‘m smellin‘ fried brains and rotten pineapples.”