David McCullough is one of America's most distinguished historians, and he has an article in the current edition of American Heritage magazine that seems particularly cogent today since we in Hall County are doing long range planning in the Chamber of Commerce's Vision 2030 project. He quotes another eminent historian who wrote (and I quote here) "...planning for the future without a sense of the past is similar to planting cut flowers and hoping for the best." McCullough states: "Today the new generation of young Americans (is) like a field of cut flowers, by-and-large historically illiterate." And then he goes on to say: "We cannot, however, blame students for their lack of understanding and awareness of history." The point McCullough is making is that history teaches us the important things that work, which have been handed to us by our forefathers ... a republic, if we can keep it; a Judeao-Christian foundation, and yet the personal freedom to chose who and how we worship; freedom of speech, and of the press; a competitive free enterprise system; a government with checks and balances. It is this generation's duty to pass to the next generation the knowledge of, and the love for, this American civilization we have inherited. All too often we take our history for granted."How can we claim indifference," McCullough asks, "to learning about those people who made it possible for us to become citizens of the world's greatest country? The freedoms we enjoy are not just a birthright, but something for which millions have struggled, suffered and died." We Americans are not simply beautiful cut flowers. We stand on a historic base that allows us to remain the greatest country on earth if ... as Benjamin Franklin said ... IF we can keep it.<br />
<br />
<I>This is Gordon Sawyer from a window on historic Green Street.</I>
