Persuasion Speech: Why
We Must Learn History
I
want everyone to close their eyes and imagine they are not in this room. Not in
Rexburg, not anywhere you’ve ever been before. You’re not sitting either.
You’re lying flat on a table. Listen to the sound of drip, drip, drip from the
leaky ceiling. Breathe in…then out… The salty aroma of fish is in the air. Can
you smell them? Feel the motion of the room slowly going up, and then gently
down. It repeats endlessly, as you realize that the swaying room is part of a
boat. Breathe in again, and you feel a SHARP pain in your back. AWAKE! You see
the fish bones littering the floor. There’s a man in the room, hands wielding
small pliers. Do you recognize him? No. “What is your name?” he asks. Silence.
You can’t remember. Who are you? Where are you? What are you doing here and why
has this fisherman just extracted bullets from your back?
Alright, open your eyes. Does anyone know what movie that
scene was from? The Bourne Identity, opening scenes. Great movie, right? Let’s
think about that scene. Could he remember who he was? Could he remember why he
was there? Is there a trilogy of successful box-office movies showing him
trying to figure that out? Yes! Jason Bourne didn’t know his own history, and
unless we study the past, neither will we. You see, everything that has
happened in the world up to this point in time tells us what we are made of. I
am me because of history. You are you because of history. Knowing our history
teaches us who we are.
How have civilizations gone by affected the world today?
Why do we speak English instead of some other language? Where does our everyday
stuff come from? Do the scriptures have anything to do with history? We are
going to explore how that is; how history has developed us, how it has changed
us, and why it should mean everything to learn it!
History in Culture
We speak English,
correct? Who do we have to thank for that? Any guesses? I say we should thank
the Huns. Remember the bad guys who popped out of the snow like daisies in the
Disney movie, Mulan? A few hundred
years after Christ, the Huns had moved from China, across Russia, and were
setting their eyes on Europe. Behind them, a trail of destruction. Ahead of
them, the barbarian tribes bordering the mighty Roman Empire. These tribes
panicked at the Hun onslaught, and being so desperate resorted to doing an
invasion of their own, aimed at Rome. The emperor at the time knew that Rome
could not stand against so many barbarians. As the Huns pushed out the
barbarians, the barbarians pushed out the Romans. In terror, the emperor
recalled all troops from England. When he did this, two tribes, known as the
Angles and the Saxons, took control of Britain. It is from the Angles that we
get “Anglish,” or English.
Imagine if the Romans
hadn’t left Britain to fight the Huns. We might be speaking Latin! History shows us where we've come from.
History in Business
Who in here uses a credit card? Bank of America was the first bank to create the credit card system in the late 1950’s. If we trace Bank of America’s genealogy back a 50 years, we end up in San Francisco, 1906, during one of the worst earthquakes in American history. An Italian banker named Giannini had rescued the money from his bank before fire destroyed the city, and then set about loaning funds to the earthquake survivors as they rebuilt San Francisco. The quake had eliminated nearly all Giannini’s competitors, which helped Bank of America in becoming one of the largest banking companies in the United States. In other words, an earthquake is the reason you have that credit card in your wallet. History shows us how we got here.
History in Religion
The
Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ. We know this to be a record
of the inhabitants of the Americas descending from Lehi and his family, as well
as others who were led here by the Lord. The introduction says of this,
The book was written by many
ancient prophets by the spirit of prophecy and revelation. Their words, written
on gold plates, were quoted and abridged by a prophet-historian named Mormon.
The
prophets in the Book of Mormon, ending with Mormon and Moroni, were indeed
historians in every definition. Alma often reminds both his sons and the
readers that history was essential in the converting success of Ammon and the
sons of Mosiah:
Yea, I say unto you, were it not
for these things that these records do contain, which are on these plates,
Ammon and his brethren could not have convinced so many thousands of the
Lamanites of the incorrect tradition of their fathers; yea, these records and
their words brought them unto repentance; (Alma 37:9).
Were
it not for their own historical records, we wouldn’t have the fullness of the
gospel, the restoration of the priesthood, or even this wonderful campus to
gain an education. We have every name mentioned in this book to thank for our
education. History shows us how to live.
History in Who We Are
The most important people I have to
thank for who I am are my parents. As I have grown, I’ve been able to see them
grow with me. There are people you value in your lives, be it parents or other
close ones, that you owe gratitude for their contribution to you. I know that
my grandpa, who passed away in 2009, was one of the first people outside of my
immediate family I cared greatly about. He helped me discover a new level of
admiration in others, a skill I use today. Though I love him, I've learned that
the way my parents raised me was influenced by how my grandpa raised my mom.
For example, my mom is one who always has hope in the abilities of others. This
is a trait she’s passed to me, but I suspect she developed it while a teenager as
she watched my grandpa overcome an addiction to smoking.
What
things have we learned from our parents? Do we know why they named us the way
they did? Where does your last name come from? How did your parents meet? I
found out this summer how my grandparents met, and it’s a really wonderful
story. But you should find out how your grandparents met. What can you do today to discover how your family has made you?
Take
these. (Hand out papers) They are a starter questionnaires of things that you
should know about your family. Why? Because you will never understand who you can become if you don't know who you are. Because the more you know your history, the
more you know about you.
References:
The
Bourne Identity. Dir. Doug Liman. Perf. Matt Damon.
Universal, 2002. DVD.
http://www.creditcardprocessingspace.com/history-of-the-credit-card/ http://about.bankofamerica.com/en-us/our-story/our-heritage-loans-handshake.html#fbid=7iecHgppVyS
Introduction, Book of Mormon
Alma 37:9, Book of Mormon
