Stevie Szabad, Author

“Those who don’t study history are destined to repeat it.” Who said that? Thanks to google, I see that some philosopher named Santayana is credited, more or less, with this version :  “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I like that, condemned. It’s more a warning than just a saying. But to become a true warning, one must understand what did happen in the past, hence the “study” of history seems to me to be as important as remembering it.

Today, June 6, I need not offer a history lesson to my generation of military brats. We grew up with services and remembrances of important events, especially of the military variety. I always pause and remember on days like today.

But of course, history doesn’t stop. It marches along. dragging us and current and future generations along its bumpy, twisted paths. Not everything on those journeys is pleasant, although there are nice spots, too. We must study and therefore learn about the jolts and crevasses and even those smoothly pleasant stretches, in order to avoid the bad and encourage the good. So we remember.

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