Remember

"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know
tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!"

-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, April 3rd 1968, in Memphis, his last sermon.

How do you remember something that you weren't even alive for? You read about it, you imagine it, you let it rattle around in your thick skull for a little bit. But how do you really remember it?

How does a generation ever escape the mistakes of its predecessors? How will we ever learn the lessons of those that failed before us?

Our memory is short, and sometimes I fear that every hard fought victory is forgotten as the victors grow old and and their children gather pride and contempt for anything they have not discovered themselves.

We try, and we try, and we fail.

Yet there are some things that we cannot afford to forget