There appears to be a trend today, amongst governments large and small, and among people in the world, to revise history. We are now to pick and choose the events and their interpretations are twisted by facts gone unreported or forgotten and the stresses of the time are judged by today's rules.
What do I mean by this? Take our own Village, UCO, and the history of it all. Today we have a man who insists that only he knows the true history of the Village and therefore he must be president for life. His historical knowledge is twisted and selective at the same time, refusing to recall what he has said in prior years - such as the statement that those who oppose term limits are autocrats at heart and will become autocratic. Ahem!!! Please look in that mirror. Thank you! He "disremembers" the harm he and his have caused to the Village with poor work procedures, no process at all, rampant discrimination against those who oppose him, vile behavior, tantrums and paranoia, horrific work projects in the village which have left us without necessary funds to correct the damage, a system of accounting that is rooted in la-la land, and worst of all, has generated a feeling of enmity within the Village simply by doing and being what he is. His words are lies, half truths, exaggerations and distortions, all accompanied with that snarky grin of his as he watches the destruction he has caused, sitting there ensconced amongst his hand picked small group of elites - those he has chosen in his regal rulings to rule the Village as he sees fit. Bad situation all around.
But it is even worse out there in the real world. Suddenly all the figures of the past are being examined with today's glasses and being judged accordingly. For example, a great man of peace, though not perfect, has lately bee n pilloried because of his racism when he was President of a university. Yes, his racism was awful, but it was of the time as was the racism of FDR, part and parcel of the "genteel" anti-Semitism of the times, refusing even to help those being murdered as he waffled, yet that does not make us unmindful of what he did to bring the country back to a working economy. His wife, on the other hand, overcame her initial disposition and became a true humanitarian. All aspects of our great figures should be taught.
Were we to carry this through we would have to tar MLK with the same brush, as his personal life, his philandering, left much to be desired. Yet that does not take away from his courage and historical footprint.
This hysteria is fed by people who wish to revise history until it fits their needs. We "forget" so quickly that slavery is still alive, in Haiti with the restavik system, in India, in Arab and African countries using both black and Asian workers, in human sex trafficking. We forget that the slavery system, that awful beyond words system, was fed by African tribes warring and raiding other tribes, taking prisoners and selling them to Arab slave traders who in turn sold them to British and American captains and finally to the individual slave owner. All shared in the blame and still do when modern day forms of slavery are allowed to remain in place.
But history is history. Shall we forget the achievements of Edward II of England who brought Wales into the kingdom, appointing the first Prince of Wales who was not Welsh? He was ruthless in his subjugation of the Welsh, yet it was important to the history and progress of England so what to do now? By the way, he also expelled the Jews from England.
Do we all make specialty groups and use them only? Yes, we have the ADL and the ACLU but notice how often they involve themselves in all issues. We have Black Lives Matter but is it not right to say that all lives matter? Shall we not all work together and achieve or at least get closer to achieving a world where all are safe and respected _ Jews, Copts, Rohingya, Hindus, Sunni and Shia from each other and the ravages poured down on the Hazara and Yazidis, the Bahai, the atheists, women, children and the list goes on - gay, transgender, the different and the quirky, the out of the box thinkers.
History can be made to suit our purposes just as we see in CNN who used a map that showed Palestina rather than Israel. And you wonder why we worry? We worry when the ambassador from France to the USA says, " These are the foundations of our model of society that the terrorists seek to destroy: Yesterday journalists and Jews; now ordinary citizens whose only crime was to enjoy life on a Friday night in Paris." So Jews are not citizens? Are not innocent? Are they to be set aside, separate, judged responsible for their own deaths? The world is not yet where it should be and much of that is because of the peoples of the earth. We allow this to go on. We elect leaders who are so weak and faulty and who refuse to see the truth or find it at all. We elect these people and/or allow them to remain in office through fear, inertia, selfishness and agreement with their policies. Again, not good.
History is the story of the victors. Were the victors other than what they were, history would be written much differently. Neither would be 100% correct. Would that we could all agree on a unified and true version. Perhaps we can do a larger version of what I used to do with two disagreeing children in school. They would be given pen and paper and told they had to write an agreed upon account of the incident and when both agree on it and sign, I will read it and make a decision. Almost always the end would be that they would agree, share the blame, say they are over it and could they go back to class, please. Perhaps we need to do that. Can you imagine Putin and Erdogan together? Can you imagine Putin and the Ukrainian president together? Or , the leaders of rival tribes or even two responsible people, one Israeli and one Arab, all sitting and talking together, pad and pen in hand, waiting to return to the principal with the true history of the incident? Wow! If only it were that simple out there. But we can dream and work towards that dream, can we not and we can certainly start right here in the village. Hey, David, got a pad. I got the pens. One on one. Ha! As if. Manchild, double dare ya!
Total in Israel for October, November: 24 dead, 210 wounded, 82 for shock. From the elderly to the young, Jew and even some Arabs being killed in these attacks, stabbed, hacked, axed, shot, rammed by cars. And the attacks continue, thankfully avoiding more killing and wounding.
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