Dean and I toured the Mall area of DC yesterday. On our tour we visited the Holocaust Museum. I was reminded of the cliche every high school history teacher must tell his/her students at least 100 times a year: “Those who fail to study history will be forced to relive it.”
Now, I think many must be just taking this statement literally…sure when a guy named Hitler comes to power I will stop him this time. This cliche is a figurative statement. History is not repeated exactly, the themes are repeated. The fact that people will be ruled and controlled better if the have a common enemy, and they fear that this enemy will do harm to them.
Humm…doesn’t this sound like how the the gay marriage issue was used to win many elections last year? If we allow gays to marry then people will want to marry their dogs. Hence ruling via fear and control. Get the gist? False prophets preaching hate to control is the lesson we should have learned in high school.
At the Jefferson Memorial I was reminded of the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
