Gary Horton (Jan. 28) writes of “Things We Can’t Forget.” He starts by describing how a cleaning up of his wife’s closet of shoes reminded him of World War II, the Holocaust, and reasons NATO and the U.N. were established. He laments how our administration has forgotten why those institutions were established and are so important to peace and stability.
The irony is palpable. Mr. Horton is warning people not to forget history when it is a bold reminder of how easily we forget. It’s not because we want to forget. It’s because we have nothing to remember. The reason is simple.
We live in the world we were born into, not the world our grandparents were born into. It is a frequent joke among my generation that our elders seem to live lives of frugality and hoarding. It is nearly impossible to empathize or sympathize with someone whose experience is removed and alien to our own. We might naturally (and sadly) need to recreate our own depressions to appreciate them. I would go so far as to postulate that it may be the doom of our species that each generation repeat these painful mistakes, as in the Greek myth of “Sisyphus,” condemned to be human. I suggest Mr. Horton read that before he pens another daydream.
Arthur Saginian
Santa Clarita
