Remembering the Past
"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." —George Santayana
Did you watch the opening ceremony for 2002 Winter Olymics last night? It was beautiful. We sure put on a good show for the rest of the world. We honor and cherish the first humans to inhabit North America — the Native Americans. We respect and protect the native animals of America — the Buffalo, Coyote, and Eagle. And, did you see the beautiful paper puppets? Wasn't the one of the giant American Bison cool with all the little buffalos running inside of it?
Of course, our show for the rest of the world wasn't really the truth. It was only a picture of the world as it "ought to be". An "ideal" picture of early America. This is the way our Amercian history "ought to have been".
In the "real" world — in the world of "is", those arriving from Europe would kill or imprison most of the Native Americans, use the Chinese and African immigrants as slave labor, and kill all but 800 of the millions of mighty Buffalo that ran on the American plains. This was the number of living Buffalo at the end of the 19th century. Our American history "could have been different". But it wasn't.
I am suggesting that last night's ceremony "could" also have been different. It could have presented the settlement of the American west with a little more respect for the truth. It could have still been beautiful, perhaps even more beautiful. I think it would have been much more valuable to show the rest of the world that we know that real adversity is a part of our history. That we know we made mistakes in the past, and have committed to learn from those mistakes. That we now have respect for Native Americans, Chinese Americans and African Americans. That we wish we had not made so many native animal species extinct, and that today we cherish all live on planet Earth.
This would have shown the world that we did remember the past.
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