I fully endorse the way our friends in Toledo have found to innovate while respecting the past: time changes viewpoints, but its important to leave a record of change. The San Pedro street plaque in Toedo shows the way
I love this statement, especially in the context above: "I was instantly in love, not knowing things being my specialty, and knowing that I don’t know things, my badge of honour."
I fully agree with you on two levels: one personal, one cultural. On the personal level: the vagaries of life were such that none of the houses where I lived, and sometimes the streets, are still standing. There is no way to go back and check this or that. These places exist only in my memory... On the cultural level: if you erase the past, you erase your culture and then any kind of prophet can make you believe any kind of stupidity, like the "glorious" reconstructed past. The worst example is taking place today: Russia's dictator has decided that Ukraine "does not exist" and should be disciplined and brought back into the embrace of "mother Russia", therefore he invaded it and is bent on erasing its cities from the map.
Much better would be to explain why such and such acted like they did at their time and social environment. How our ideas of equality, protection of the weak, rule of law, freedom of speech, profession, and choice came about, and how to avoid the return to autocracy and authoritarian regimes as we see unfortunately today.
I fully endorse the way our friends in Toledo have found to innovate while respecting the past: time changes viewpoints, but its important to leave a record of change. The San Pedro street plaque in Toedo shows the way
I love this statement, especially in the context above: "I was instantly in love, not knowing things being my specialty, and knowing that I don’t know things, my badge of honour."
Thank you!
I fully agree with you on two levels: one personal, one cultural. On the personal level: the vagaries of life were such that none of the houses where I lived, and sometimes the streets, are still standing. There is no way to go back and check this or that. These places exist only in my memory... On the cultural level: if you erase the past, you erase your culture and then any kind of prophet can make you believe any kind of stupidity, like the "glorious" reconstructed past. The worst example is taking place today: Russia's dictator has decided that Ukraine "does not exist" and should be disciplined and brought back into the embrace of "mother Russia", therefore he invaded it and is bent on erasing its cities from the map.
Much better would be to explain why such and such acted like they did at their time and social environment. How our ideas of equality, protection of the weak, rule of law, freedom of speech, profession, and choice came about, and how to avoid the return to autocracy and authoritarian regimes as we see unfortunately today.
Thank you for writing this. It really resonates.