Editor,
I am reading The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series of books and in the second book, Tears of the Giraffe, Mma Ramotswe (the primary detective) says some interesting things.
She says, “People are forever digging up events that had taken place a long time ago. And what is the point in doing this if the effect was merely to poison the present? There were many wrongs in the past, but did it help to keep bringing them up and giving them a fresh airing?” This book was written in 1998, before our recent spree of rewriting history.
George Santayana, way back in 1905, said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” How are we to remember the past if some people are determined to rewrite it? History is history. Leave it alone or I fear we are in for a very rocky future.
Geoff Solomon, Meaford
Editor’s Note: I understand the concern about rewriting history, but are we making an assumption that the history books as we know them are true and accurate?
