The Problem with Trying to Erase History

 

Throughout the history of this nation, or any nation, there will be things that leaves us with a sense of pride and things that we would rather choose to hide but history itself teaches us that if becoming a more perfect union is what we truly desire, trying to hide or erase our bad actions of history is not and never will be the proper way to go.

Ripping down Confederate statutes, changing the names of military bases which carried some of these general’s name, burning books or banning them, and of course rewriting history to suit a particular cause or belief are these ways of condemning the nation and all nations to eventually and constantly repeat these bad acts. The push to erase our history does not come from those seeking to make our world a more inviting and welcoming place, it’s sought by the kings, queens, and dictators who have been allowed to act as their ideas, beliefs, and desires are the only ones that matter. Laws created during a time where few ruled over the many with personal objectives are still on the books, yet we choose to change names or rip down a statue instead of going line by line through each states history of these laws and bringing to light those legal demons which could be reactivated just as some have been recently.

As imperfect people we wish to live in a perfect world but our first action, toward that endeavor, should always be to fix ourselves first.  Our history of any actions or inactions will add to the overall history of this nation and be the legacy that we leave for those who will come after us.  If it is our desire to leave those not yet here, a much better world than we found when we arrived, our vision should be clear on what it is that we have to do.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr did not start the fight for civil rights, it started many generations before him but what elevates him to the top of the civil rights leaders of all time is he took up that mantle and finished that part of this fight.  Christopher Columbus is created with discovering America, but truth be told the reason it is called the United States of America is because before Columbus, there was Amerigo Vespucci, but we do not celebrate or know very little about this person.

The richness, intelligence, ingenuity, and innovations of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca Indians civilizations are still a blurb in the history books while all those great achievements by those nations were stolen and credit awarded to the Spaniards or Europeans instead. Slavery began because warlords of Africa was so taken by the things brought to them by Portuguese ships that they had to have something to trade and so when they conquered another African village, they captured the inhabitants of those villages and used them to trade for those material things.

Where are these and many other events of history stored, only in the mind of a few who wanted answers and were able to collect this information before it disappears.  Without the true story of a nation’s history, real change can never be achieved, and we commit ourselves to travel the same road that we have been embarked on for over 300 years, repeating the same mistakes that those before us committed.  We never fully allow ourselves or even those coming after us a real opportunity to seal up those mistaken steps in the wrong direction because we are more reactive than proactive.

If it is our desire to make this land a better land for generations to come, we must stop constructing temporary barriers at the mouth of entries to the worst part of our history and construct fortified and never-ending walls to prevent that entry.  This can only be done one way and one way only; we must expose our demons to the light and not continue to hide them in the dark or our closets.  Ideas to better our society begin with a thought and then an action, but the thought may not become that action within that same generation.  While the current generation may not have a good idea how to prevent a repeat, those generations coming after us could, but they will only be given this chance if we allow all or history, good and bad, to be readily available for any who desire to take up the fight like a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.