WHY YOU AND I MUST KNOW HISTORY

"History is knowledge." This is a phrase I wouldn’t have understood back when I was in school because I could not see how history related to my life. Knowing who the signers of the Declaration of Independence were would give me knowledge? Knowing what year the Civil War started and ended was important to me and my life? Why?

What I didn’t understand then was that knowing history WOULD give me knowledge, and power. The dates wars started and ended were not important, in and of themselves. But knowing history put the dates in context, and that was what was important. What was going on in the world when a war started? Why was it fought? Who were the good people and who were the bad? Those were the facts I really needed to learn.

As I remember History 101, it was all about names and dates, and stories that proved the United States government was always on the right side—but was that true? Were our leaders on the right side when they shoved Native Americans off their land so the white man could claim the treasures buried there? Were they right to choose to fight Communism in South Vietnam? Are they right now to initiate a war in Iraq based on the lie that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that they were harboring terrorists?

That, dear friends, is why history is knowledge. Knowing that our government leaders should always be questioned can come only from knowing history. They’re not perfect—and neither are we—no one is! But those of us who lived through the Vietnam War, then followed the news and studied government reports following the war, have learned this lesson. Those of us who lost loved ones in the war, learned the lesson the hard way.

From recent history, I can only discern that many of our citizens have not studied history thoroughly, and history teachers are failing to teach all of the facts about history. Okay, teachers do have a lot of information to cover, and they often teach from books that don’t cover everything. But I feel it is their responsibility to learn the facts and teach them, even though their textbooks may be lacking. Do they read newspapers? Do they read historical books outside the textbook they’re teaching from? Do they even watch the news or documentaries on television?

Well pardon me, but I believe there is a responsibility to future leaders and voters of America to be taught the facts behind history. We all bring our own beliefs to our jobs, be it teaching, as a journalist, or as a parent, but every one who impacts the young in any way has a responsibility to learn the true facts and teach or write them. Not our truth, which may lack depth or be lopsided, but the TRUE and COMPLETE FACTS.

The future of our country depends on those youngsters now learning about the history of their country knowing what really happened. They, like us, can’t make rational decisions on things like: how will this new legislation affect my life in the long run? Which candidate will work to improve the lives of all Americans? Which one will bow to special interests, like the war profiteers, or big business? Will bowing to them negatively affect my own family’s lifestyle, our dreams, my retirement?

We must know what has happened in the past to understand what will happen again in the future, because history does repeat itself. The economy? It’s all been played out before. The war? Well we’ve certainly been there before—and not too long ago!

Unless we all make it our mission to read, watch the news, and study the history we don’t remember or never learned, we have no one to blame but ourselves when the American dream turns, instead, into a nightmare.