History

I wrote this when I was younger...needs some editing but the point is still there

To Whom It May Concern:

How does anybody know that history really happened? Just about every moron that has ever stop foot in a school can tell you that George Washington was the first president of the United States or Christopher Columbus found the Americas by complete accident, but how do we know that any of it is true? The first president of the United States could have been hundreds of years before George Washington and none of us would ever know the difference. Benjamin Franklin might not have even invented electricity. He could have been some idiot who had no idea what was going on but his name looked good in print, or he might have just been made up. Benjamin Franklin could have been a name that a bunch of inventors made up for all of them to hide behind just long enough to get their money. These inventors could have picked some random guy off the street, gave him a nametag that said "Ben" and set him loose to take in all of the negativity people had about whatever breakthrough invention happened to be popular at the time. You can print nearly anything in a book, call it a fact and somebody is going to believe it. Somebody could start a rumor out of pure stupidity, claim that Grover Cleveland was a woman and before you know it, it would be in newspapers across the entire United States. "Twenty-second President a Woman?" With one statement somebody could change the layout of history and nobody would even give it a second thought because somebody called it a "historical fact". The only thing we know is what is happening now. What happened yesterday is history and we can't get that back. What is going to happen tomorrow is the future and we can't tell what is going to happen then. The only thing we can be sure of is now. Right now there could be a big scientific breakthrough happening or some big government scandal going on that could go down in the history books as the biggest thing this century and everybody would believe it because it would be happening right now; it would be real and there would be tangible evidence that it was happening, but in a few hundred years there might be people that doubt it. There is no way to tell what's real and what's not. Historians might be just really good story tellers. Today is tomorrow's history, and if it's all going to be put down in a book and called fact we might as well try to achieve something and make the history we're leaving behind something to admire.

Sincerely,
An Annoyed Citizen

Reviews

[{Angel Redd}[Formerly A..]

Yes! i agree with you exactly. How do we even know anything? i'll bring this up the next time my history teacher b*****s about how important the subject is.

[Melissa M.]

"Today is tomorrow�s history, and if it�s all going to be put down in a book and called fact we might as well try to achieve something and make the history we�re leaving behind something to admire."
Great line and quite admirable at that. The idea that Benjamin Franklin was some bum off the street is quite novel, though a little far fetched I think. Whether it's true that man landed on the moon or in some hangar hidden in the mountains, without the recorded history it never would have even been put into question. Good piece, though I'm not certain I completely understand your beef. One sure way to "fight the power" would be to take it upon yourself to record the history around you as it's happening... is journalism your chosen major?