David Whalen
Facing History Reflective Essay
What Facing History Meant to Me
This course meant new level of
understanding for me. There are a lot of
concepts that people are reluctant to look at because it gets ugly. There are a lot of people that are afraid to
face history. If you don’t look back at
the darkest moments of history then you are doomed to make the same mistakes
that were already made.
If someone only says Hitler was evil as an
explanation for the Holocaust they could have been oblivious to the small
previous steps. Any person who believes
Hitler was wrong could still dehumanize others just as he did. This course showed me the steps towards
genocide. Now I can pick up on the steps
before others. This course reinforced to
me that calling someone a seemingly harmless name like gay is not to far off
from calling someone a Jew. If a term
was intended to demine even if you are oblivious to the power one word had
doesn’t mean that word will be any less painful for who it was directed towards. On the other hand you could use one word that
has more power and in the opposite direction.
Saying stop! In the face of oppression can be very helpful. If all the people involved in a situation
were willing to be a rescuer or resistor then there would no longer be a
situation. That goes without saying if
it truly was everyone but even if just one person stands up then it can be
amazing what he or she can stop.
I have seen this picture many times
before and it still is an inspiration to me.
Through the course I realized that I should be the tank man. I can’t bet on someone else to stand in front
of the tank so I need to do it myself.
With that said I should never go against common sense but even if the
tanks were to attack he would become a martyr.
This picture is so well known because that man is a hero. If everyone grew up with facing history in
their curriculum then there would be a city of people out there with that
man. That’s one of the things facing
history does; it makes heroes. In the class
I saw what happened if not enough people stood up to become heroes. I was really inspired to see that there were
some heroes involved to stop the Nazis outside of the Allied forces. I had never heard any information on the
Warsaw ghetto uprising prior to watching the film based on it. If every single ghetto stood up like the
civilians in that ghetto did there would have been possibly no concentration
camps. This meant really got my mind
going. I feel like I have been given a
mission that should be a worldwide obligation.
There has never been a class about self-discovery or standing up to
slavery until now. If such dark concepts
were not involved in the course I would recommend it be taught earlier on. I can only imagine what the world would have
been like if all kids learned from this class early and took each message to
heart. Kids are born without the scorn
of racism.
In
The
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Bruno had to be told not to associate with
Jews. Bruno was taught that he was
superior to his friend. If instead he were
taught that his friend was equal as him things would have a new light. I don’t know if I would have lied where Bruno
did at the expense of his friend but I learned it wouldn’t be easy to tell the
truth. Another thing I learned from this
course was civic agency. Normally I
would have said the decision would have been easy but once I imagined all of
the factors that would have been going through his mind, that the decision he
made was by no means an easy one.
Through the course I have done a lot
of thinking about myself. I wanted to
make sure I would be a person that would stand out for a friend even when I
felt powerless in my own home. To this
day I don’t know I would have done so before the course. Now I know I could not live with myself if I
made the decision to punish the starving friend. If it wasn’t for this course I would not have
to make such decisions unless I painfully had to later in life. This is also represented by the movie with
Sophie’s choice. She had to make a
choice that was never meant to be made.
It’s easy to just shout a name if you are not actually the one making
the choice. If you have to live with the
consequences of your choice when it is that severe then it will haunt you regardless. I know I would have to try something drastic
if I were put in that situation. No
human should ever have to go through that much fear and uncertainty. As in many cases fear is the fear of
uncertainty. The Nazis created a reality
were your worst fears are the actual outcomes.
Now
that such a terrible event has happened I’m glad there is at least evidence to
learn from. I assumed people could only
be in total disbelief of history if that history existed before the age of
photography and video. I’m not glad to
be proven wrong in that respect. I
suppose if you can persuade your mind to be that blissfully ignorant then the
world must be a place free of cloudy days.
As for me I no longer have that option.
I have taken the red pill by taking this course. It is far too late for me to take the blue
pill instead and remain in perpetual ignorance.
Now
I will leave my mark on society to make it better. Facing History and Ourselves revealed that I know
I can a make a positive difference and I will.
