history.....

I don't think history can be used to understand more about the present or the future. There might be some patterns or connections between the past and future, but the connections are small and rare. We rarely hear about connections made to the past. Even if some people believe so, it is very controversial, just like the connections of Iraq war to the Vietnam war. However, we should still learn history for its own sake. European history and world history are not very important, but each countries' own history is definitely important to its citizens. We all have a responsibility to the dead (especially to the soldiers). It's kinda like why we have many memorials and stuff. There are often statues full of names of the dead soldiers. These people sacrificed their lives for the peace we have today. Without them, we might all be Nazis or Communists... We have a responsibility to learn about the dead and the wars because we have to remember them and pass on their stories to future generations. Without them, we won't be the same today. America become the greatest power not due to us but due to the efforts of the dead. I don't think we can learn a lot from history. But we can definitely pay respect and gratitude to the dead by learning history and learning about them.

This was originally posted by Yilun. I had to re-post it for her because of a blog error.