William Mangieri's Blogs: Memory Issues (and a Smashwords Coupon)

Friday was the 14^th anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Each year, we have official memorial services and specials to help us remember, but I’m not sure that many of us really do. (9-11 was one of those events that people consider seminal – everyone who was alive when those planes crashed usually remembers where they were and what they were doing at the time.)

Before 9-11 there were these people at war with us, except we didn’t know it. 9-11 woke us up to this, and for a time we were UNITED in opposition to those who would kill us. We had LEADERSHIP who understood that this was a war we needed to FIGHT, and that it was not going to be over quickly – this would be a generational conflict. We needed to stay strong and resolute and keep our eye on the ball.

Where is the ball?

We have a memory problem in the U.S. - or maybe it’s not memory, so much as a focus issue. We are the Attention Deficit Disorder nation. We are focused like a laser until we get distracted by something else. By Ferguson, or folders full of women, or American Idol, or Beyonce.

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

Almost four score years ago, this man by the name of Chamberlain made a deal with another man by the name of Hitler, who had been very clear about his intentions, and once they had an agreement the world burned.

Now we have a man named Obama who listens to the leaders of another evil regime being very obvious about their intentions (people who chant “Death to America!” are not having a Kumbaya moment with you), and thinks that he can make a deal with them, and for him the world won’t burn.

Learn from history or you’re doomed to repeat it.

Actually, you have to be able to listen to history before you can learn from it. But why listen to history – it’s so passé. And why listen to the 70% of your own citizens who are opposed to this deal? And why listen to the nation of Israel (that other country the Ayatollahs sing songs about)?

A nation founded by the survivors of The Holocaust, with a motto of NEVER AGAIN might be worth listening to. At least they don’t seem to have our memory issues.

There have been many murderous regimes throughout history that we could learn from. The sad thing is that you don’t have to remember some vague piece of history that no one alive has experienced. You don’t even have to go as far back as Hitler and the Holocaust to know what can happen here. You just have to remember fourteen years ago (when most of us were alive already) to understand the ideology we’re dealing with. And just listen to their latest chants to know their intentions.

Why should the 70% of us who did learn from history still be DOOMED to repeat it because someone else wasn’t paying attention in class? Doesn’t seem quite fair, does it?

Just saying…

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My featured short story this week is “New Antiques” (Tim Crabtree takes time out of his daily harassment by the local bullies to wonder why his new neighbors have built a forty-foot pole in their backyard. Are they trying to get hit by lightning? If he only knew...) Here’s the link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/499431?ref=NoTimeToThink

Use coupon code YY92P to save 67% off the list price at check out on Smashwords (that’s right – only 99-cents!) The coupon is good through September 21^st. Enjoy!

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William Mangieri’s writing (including his latest ePublication “Endangered”) can be found in many places, including: