A couple who are friends of ours and well educated... one a Detroit Public School teacher with a Masters degree in history and the other who runs pre-school centers in the suburbs... gave me two books yesterday. One is a copy of Common Sense by Thomas Paine and the other called Tales of the Great Lakes. They are part of the rich fabric of our national and regional history.
Unlike perceived anti-historian Henry Ford who is quoted as saying "history is bunk," I appreciate that history gives us a clearer understanding of who we are and what we may become if we are so arrogant to believe that our problems are so different from those who came before. What Mr. Ford seemed to be saying is that we cannot be bound by history and tradition if we are to make progress, but anyone who has visited the museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, knows that Mr. Ford was a student of history and knew the value of preserving... and learning from... our history.
If most Americans never learn what made America what it was, America will flounder with no bearings or basis for its future. The problems America faced when it began are different from those it faces today, yet the spirit and philosophy that created this nation has a place today... unless we forget it or never learn it. Every age has problems that seem so great that the temptation to compromise its principles looms large.
"Immediate necessity makes many things convenient, which if continued would grow into oppressions. Expedience and right are different things." Thomas PaineThese days, we are pummeled with news of crisis after crisis. It is convenient to let the "experts" in the government fix our problems for us... it is expedient. Let the "experts" mandate our marketplace. Let the "experts" tell us what is good for us and what is bad. Let the "experts" tell us what to do so that we don't have to have responsibility for our lives. All we have to do is give up a few freedoms, a few rights, a little control... and accept just a little oppression.
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