Repeating History

1984. Handmaid’s tale. Fahrenheit 451. These books are not meant to be a guidebook for how we lead our nation. Education and intelligence are what should be keeping this country running, not corruption and greed. We make it sound easy to think about how to protect the citizens that we are supposed to develop into people, but it isn't that simple. Children need books to understand the world around them. Decreasing the access to them just makes it so we don't have competent citizens. Raiding schools to find students who are just trying to learn is not right. Yet we allow shootings to happen in school, even though these are the next generation. These are kids. Trying to get an education like the rest of us. Just because it is your belief does not mean that it has to be the belief of everyone. Indoctrination is illegal, and yet it's been decided that it is the right path forward. History teaches us how to not allow for an event to happen again. It teaches us to see the misguided attempts of the past and to take measures which promote the ideals of a nation founded on the principle that we need to have representation. This country was established as a guiding light through dark times, but somehow there’s been a misconception that accessibility and equality lead to being inferior. It’s not all about the god complex that has been established in this nation. We are not better than everyone else and we do not have to be. Cooperation and citizenship mean more than just bipartisanship and nationalism. We must be good human beings first. At the moment that is not what we are doing. Instead we have created a false narrative, preaching that our country needs to come first, even though it has been the relationships that we have fostered for decades that have helped us get there. Those in power should have to work to get where they are, not just be given it on a silver platter. It is not a “golden age” if half of the population suffers, nor a “liberation” if there is not any liberation. Dystopian worlds are meant to be a call to action to turn away from the acts which are leading towards that path. Books are meant to be an escape from reality. 1984, the Handmaid’s Tale, Fahrenheit 451, these are not meant to be guidebooks for repeating history. They want us to be silent and conform; but silence is a disease and needs to be eradicated.