If I am not allowed to lie, does that include talking about history?

   "History is the lie commonly agreed upon." Voltaire was responsible for this quote. Does this mean that everything we know about our history is a lie? Well no not really. As stories go through time and travel to different places, things are bound to change a bit.  In the end, history depends on how it was reported, and how people describe it even though it migh not be the whole truth.
   To give the best possible example, think of the game telephone. Almost always when the message gets to the end it has changes drastically. It does not happen intentionally but does anyways. Especially in older history when we didn't have as many things documented we had to rely on what eyewitnesses said and people at the time of the event. So when enough people say the same version of the story, even when it is not the complete truth, it is then believed to be the truth even when it is not. For instance the story of the pilgrims we believe to be true is not in actuality. The only reason we do think this event happened the way it did is the people of the U.S agreeing to the same lie because it is close enough to the truth and is much nicer than reality.
   Although much of history is filled with lies, there is a lot of truth in there too. We can be given the facts but it is up to us to determine which is fact and which is fiction.

This happened so long ago, why do we need to know this?

   This is a statement a great deal of students have said some time in their life, I know I have.  I mean why would I need to know which countries Genghis Khan invaded? He's dead so why should i care? Why should I know about the great depression? It happened a long time ago and as they say don't dwell on the past. Well even though these things already happened, history will repeat itself and I find it important to know the things our ancestors did and how it affected the life we have today.
   In this world there is always going to be that one radical person/group trying to rule the world, and wars will always rage on. It's up to us to fix that. By learning our past, even the stuff we wish to forget we can prevent such things from happening again. We can put laws and regulations as not to witness similar tragedies. Also it gives us a chance to admire our ancestors and what they did in order to shape the future we have today. I think it is important to know that Martin Luther King Jr. was an essential component to how people interact with each other today. There is no longer segregation between black people and white people because of him and because of him our nation has a black president which in his times was even a ridiculous thing to think. But more importantly he did all of this without the use of violence. It shows the possibility of revolutionizing the way a country views something peacefully. Hopefully people in the future will be able to learn from our history that violence does not have to be the answer.
   So hopefully next time you will rethink the question "why do we need to know this?"