ALL PART OF HISTORY

       Most of us think of history as the Revolutionary War, the Alamo, The Civil War, the world wars, fallen dictators, Pearl Harbor, Viet Nam, Nine-Eleven, on and on – mostly conflict but also great accomplishments like wonderful inventions, from electricity to today’s AI and plans to settle on the moon and beyond. But when hubby and I watched the movie FORREST GUMP a few days ago, it struck me that history is not just the big events. Rather, it’s the daily events, little moments we don’t even realize will go down in history, and more than that, WE ARE ALL A PART OF IT.

       Some day we will all be gone from this earth, but we will always remain a part of history. In watching FORREST GUMP, I realized “that’s me.” “That’s us” (hubby and I). We lived through all the moments/events in that movie, from the phenomenon of once-in-a-lifetime stars like Elvis Presley to the first man on the moon, the hippie generation, the riots over the Viet Nam war mixed with hubby being in the army during that time and being a part (as a military policeman) of the race riots that were also taking place during that time. 

       We used dial telephones, tv’s with small screens and knobs you had to get out of your chair to turn, and antennas you had to climb up on the roof to turn by hand. Our conversations on the phone were not private because we were on “party lines,” sharing our phone line with others. We drove cars with no seatbelts and few other safety features. Those cars had cigarette lighters because everybody smoked and even doctors were part of cigarette ads. 

       We lived through the Korean War, Viet Nam, wars in the Middle East, and all the frivolous, unnecessary wars that still go on today in man’s foolish efforts to rule the world. I vividly remember when President Kennedy was shot, when his brother Robert was shot, when Martin Luther King was shot, when President Reagan was shot, when John Lennon was shot, when Princess Diana was killed, when computers were just an idea and big-screen TV’s were unheard of. I remember one day when I was sitting in a doctor’s office and I picked up a magazine to read an article about a young college student who was destined to be a big part of the future of technology. His name was Bill Gates.

       Through all that has taken place over time, we have our own personal history, events special just to us, graduation, college, marriage, our first baby, family triumphs and tragedies, births and deaths, and moving through all the nuances life throws at us from being children to the teenage years, early love, first jobs, raising children, then ageing into grandchildren, and (for me now) great-grandchildren. We look back on our lives and realize that through all those famous and infamous moments in recorded history, we, too, were living our own historical moments and were a part of it, just as our parents and grandparents were part of the world wars and (for some of us), part of the immigrants now woven into the fabric of the United States of America.

       I cry every time I watch FORREST GUMP, and I tell my children and grandchildren that if they want to know what life was like and how history unfolded during our lifetime, just watch that movie. It’s wonderful how real history is so cleverly woven into that movie, to the point that, for those of us who lived it, we feel like we are a part of that movie. We remember Elvis, the hippie years and the upheaval of youth who protested the war and a hundred other causes. To this day protests against any number of things continue, nearly all committed by the youth, who think they know everything but understand nothing.

       The key to knowing if your “cause” is valid and necessary is to study, learn, know, understand history. I have preached this for years, and as I have said over and over, we must insist that our schools teach history – REAL HISTORY – the good and the bad of it. IT HAPPENED. Why hide or try to change any of it? We are supposed to LEARN from history. We are a PART of history. And history helps us know the right and wrong of what is going on today. It helps breed patriotism, but it can also teach us what is still right or wrong with today’s government and with our outlook on life and death, disease and governance. In their own minds, every person has a legitimate reason for his or her beliefs, their religion, their outlook on life and how to live it, and how their country should be ruled, laws and lawlessness.

       Through it all, we are all a tiny part of history every day that we live, our lives woven into the larger scope of what will be recorded in future history books. We simply have to live our lives the best we can, appreciate each day we are here on earth and realize we are a part of real history every time we take a breath. And don’t let the powers that be try to change that history from the TRUTH to what THEY want it to be. Always educate yourselves and LEARN from history. Teach your children and grandchildren to appreciate history. There are a lot of exciting stories and interesting facts woven into real history. It’s food for story plots and feeds the imagination, imaginations that can lead to writing, acting, sports, heroism, dreams, and wonderful inventions.

Just my opinion, folks.

Rosanne