Memory

As a kid, I loved to play any type of memory game. You know the kind where all the cards are turned faced down and a player flips a card over, looks at the image, and then from the remaining face-down cards tries to find a match. Make a match and you remove the cards and place them in your stack. Of course, the game and the odds of finding a match got much better the more cards that are revealed.

Earlier this week I attended an event called FROM WRONGS TO RIGHTS which told the story of a group of parents, advocates, newspaper reporters, and lawyers who brought needed reform to the horrific living (I use the term very loosely) conditions of children and youth and young adults with disabilities being basically ware-housed in the Polk State Facility. The stories were told and the heroes and heroines of the effort were celebrated and honored. As it should be.

As a current advocate with persons with disabilities it was a necessary and important history to be shared and remembered and even labeled with the oft-repeated advocacy phrase: “Never Again.”

I read an article that highlighted the efforts of groups to have the story of the Holocaust taught in schools. I commend and support this work. Reading the piece, I was disheartened to learn of the significant number of young people who have no knowledge of the when, the where, the why, and the who of the Holocaust.

“What we don’t learn and fail to remember, we are destined to repeat.”

A couple of things we must do and do well --- know the stories of those who have gone before us and made a path of justice upon which we also trod. Celebrate them. Remember them. Continue what they started.

Secondly, be a student of history. More so in this era in which due to shrinking resources, schools are cutting history programs from their curriculum, we must find ways to teach our children our history. I loved the fact that Steven Spielberg made DVD’s of his Oscar-winning film, LINCOLN, available to schools around the nation.

Your assignment: read a critically-acclaimed book or watch a critically-acclaimed movie, visit a museum, tour an historical site….for bonus points --- bring a kid or young person with you.

sj;