"Why Should I Care About History?"

Earlier today, I was working at my checker position at the grocery store. With the "big blizzard" warning coming up, the store was packed for the entirety of my 6 hour shift; near the end, I was pretty frazzled and was ready to go home. At around ten to 5, a somewhat middle-aged woman came through my line. I immediately noticed her shirt, which said something to the extent of "The South Will Rise Again", Confederate flag and all. I used this to strike up the following conversation:

Pharoah Noh-Tyep: "The South Will Rise Again", hm?

Woman: ...Oh, this? Yeah, I like it! Bought it at [supermarket] for $3!

P: I see. Has anyone commented on it yet?

W: What do you mean?

P: Well, it is the battle cry of Southern Redeemers, those guys who want to restart the Civil War...

W: (confused) The who? What redeemers?

This is where I kind of messed up, and used the wrong words.

P: You know, like...the KKK.

W: WHAT? That's not true! This is just a fashion design. You know, a brand! I ain't a racist.

P: I never said you were. But it isn't just a fashion design. It's a historical phrase that many use to try and...

W: (cuts off) Why should I care about history? It's just a shirt. You're being a little disrespectful.

I couldn't say anything. I admit, I may have gotten a little pushy. But what she had just said...my God. I finished her order without another word, and finished up my shift. I bought a LIFE magazine on Frank Sinatra on the way out.

How can anyone live like that? To not care about history is to spit in the face of those who died to either better the future of protect the unborn generations. Like the woman in the store, it can also lead to horrible miscommunications; what if she had worn that shirt in Baltimore? Or Detroit? That would be like eating KFC in a chicken coop. It's astounding how we've all seemed to just shrug our knowledge of history off on the "geeks" and teachers who actually give a damn. History is our biggest factor to why we're even here; why I'm writing this, why you're reading this, why that lady could even buy more than a pound of apples.

But why should you care, you probably wonder? History class is boring, slow, and dull; I'll just wing the test next week and move on. Guess what? That's perfectly fine. You can continue on in your life, ignoring what isn't exciting and entertaining and filling yourself to your heart's content with what you do enjoy. Then you can go to the store, buy a shirt that says "Hitler Did Nothing Wrong", and wear it proudly to the grocery store because it's what's "in".

If you know me, or even this blog, you know it's my mission to help anyone, even one person, realize how important world history is. My worn out mission statement is that "history repeats itself"; the only way to avoid it is to teach the masses about it. If we didn't care about math, computers would stop dead in their computations. If we didn't care about science, NASA wouldn't have even left the ground. If we didn't care about art, there wouldn't be a Broadway or van Gogh. So what difference is it that we can disregard history? If we didn't care about that, we wouldn't be here.

I can't change anyone's opinion. They're opinions, after all. But we can make a difference by trying to form positive opinions about history when children are young. Take them to a museum instead of the playground for a day. Read them a story about Greek gods once. Teach a class about the strangeness and wonderfulness of the Renaissance. It doesn't have to be a lot, but it has to be something. Our future depends on our appreciation and understanding of history.

Do you know what not caring about history is? Ignorance. Don't breed ignorance. It's lead to worse than a politically incorrect T-shirt.

-Pharaoh Noh-Tyep.