Remember, Remember…

The Fifth of November

The gunpowder, treason and plot

I know of no reason

why the gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

Now, why you might ask, would an ordained minister in the United States be writing a post about an English historical event that happened centuries ago in Merry Old England? And, no, the answer is not because I saw the movie “V for Vendetta.” Though I am a huge fan of the movie, it’s the message that I love the most.

There is an old adage, “Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.” Sadly, we are now living in a world that is destroying it’s own history. In the states, we are removing statues and monuments commemorating historical events and people that only a certain small percentage of the populace deem to be “negative”. Even in England, today, November 5th, which used to be known as “Guy Fawkes Day” and effigies were burned in memoriam of such a historically significant event, is now known only as “Bonfire Night.”

While I understand completely that these events in history may cast a negative light on the world that people live in today, what societies are not understanding is that these events and people that we are trying to bury so deeply, ARE important. Not because the events were joyful or celebratory, but because it is through the events themselves, we can understand the significance of humanity’s evolution. We learn about historical events to understand where we came from, and what we have learned from them as a society. When we destroy our history, we destroy where we came from, and we destroy any chance of learning the lessons that our ancestors have taught us. We cannot learn and advance as a culture, as a society, as a human race if we try and destroy our past. When we destroy the monuments of our past we doom ourselves, and our future generations to repeating it.

So tonight, celebrate the Fifth of November. Celebrate our past in all it’s glorious wonder, both the good and the bad. Learn from it. Teach our children where we came from so that we are not doomed to repeat our mistakes, but so that we can learn from them.

Blessed Be.