Walking through history

If we fail to learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat it. Somehow that seems all the more important now. For example, hopefully we've learned that the good old boy you'd shoot pool with and go to the car races with is NOT the man you want running the country. But there are other things...

Right now, I'm fixated on the American Revolution...thanks to HBO and "John Adams". I'm reading more about that time in our history too. Most of what I remembered from school was "Johnny Tremain" and 1776. And that was in the 5th grade! Once you start reading, you find that much happened that you didn't learn about in grade school, and forgot since college. So, television has renewed my interest in that part of American history. To the point of reading what we have in our personal library, and considering adding more. Names that you may have heard long ago, and forgotten...Horatio Gates...a very British sounding name, but one of the American generals, and not so great. Charles Lee, the infamous Benedict Arnold (I think Gates is one reason Arnold turned to the British), Francis Marion (the Swamp Fox). Sure you have Jefferson, Franklin, Sam Adams...but there is so much more to this Revolution than just the prominent names! (I'm advocating reading here)

I have long wished to be able to step back and watch, an apparition unaffected by the happenings around me, but witness to them. In other words, to see the past...much as the ghosts of "A Christmas Carol" did with poor old Scrooge. HBO and people like Ken Burns have done much to make history come alive for me, and I assume for many others.

This year, we will make history. A woman, or a black man will run for President this year. Historic in itself, should they win, history will be made each day and we will all witness it. The pieces of our past are visible only based on what records remain to explore. This piece of our future is one we will all witness. For that, we can thank our past.