History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, It Rhymes

You would hope that history teaches,
But I’m afraid it merely preaches:
That upon the simple ears it reaches,
Would recall—to not repeat—
The injustices—it admonishes.

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“The only thing that we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” By: Georg Hegel (1770–1831)

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” By: Mark Twain (1835–1910)

“More than a few commentators have drawn sometimes shaky comparisons between the current moment and 1968, the year when, in April, Dr. King was gunned down on a motel balcony in Memphis. In June, Robert Kennedy was murdered at the Ambassador Hotel, in Los Angeles, after winning the California primary… At the Democratic Convention that summer, in Chicago, Mayor Richard Daley cracked down brutally on anti-war protesters in Grant Park. Richard Nixon won the Presidency. And, as few remember, there was also a flu pandemic; the H3N2 virus killed at least a million people, including a hundred thousand Americans. Perhaps the deepest frustration of thinking about 1968 and 2020 is the time elapsed, the opportunities squandered, the lip service paid. In the realm of criminal justice, the prison population began to skyrocket under Ronald Reagan and kept on accelerating for decades, until midway through the Obama Administration. Black Lives Matter began, in 2013, at least in part because even the Obama Presidency, for all its promise, proved unable to exert anything like a decisive influence on issues of racism and police abuse.” Excerpts from: An American Uprising

The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern. Where there is no vision, the people perish… Many seek the ruler’s favor; but every man’s judgment comes from The Lord. There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps. The wise fear The Lord and shun evil, but a fool is hotheaded and yet feels secure. Bible, Proverbs 29:7,18,26; 14:12,15,16