As a youngster I accepted everything that I was taught in 
history class as the absolute truth.  In fact, just a
few years ago I would read something in a book that appeared to
be authoritative and I would accept it as an absolute.  I can't
believe that I am the only person in the world that is or was
that naive.  I realize now that anyone can write a history book
and state an opinion as fact.  School systems adopt history books
that are acceptable to the community in which they are teaching. 
These books skip over hundreds of years with reference to one or
two incidents which may or may not be significant.  And the worst
of it is that most history has been written by the conquerors. 
Their view of history supports and justifies the means used to
gain their victory.  Even American history, new in comparison to
the rest of the world, is filled with half truths and outright
lies to cover the atrocities that were committed in the name of
the government.

No one will be able to change what has been written.  But
each person has a responsibility to weigh and evaluate the facts
that are presented as history and to keep an open mind to
alternative view points and possibilities.  I can think of many
situations in the modern world that are potential targets for
historical revision.  Many books have been written stating that
the holocaust that took place during the second world war was a
work of fiction and never happened.  There are so many different
accounts of the assassination of John F. Kennedy that historical
scholars of future centuries will spend entire academic life
times determining which were accurate and which were not.  The
history of the rebirth of the State of Israel has about ten
different versions, depending on who you may be reading or
talking to.

And while the ability to retain information in the modern
era is far advanced from ancient times, so is the ability to
create fiction and force it to become fact.  The goal of the
educational system must be to train young minds to inquire into
the written word and to study all of the information available on
a given subject before arriving at any conclusions.  

Even more important is to train young minds so that they
will be able to leave behind a legacy of who they were and how
the times that they lived were so that their children will have a
sense of history all of their own.  That is why I am writing this
book.  It may never get published and that is okay.  I will print
a copy for each of my children and grandchildren and they will
have some idea of who I was and how I lived my life in the last
half of the 20th century and hopefully, the first half of the
21st century.  With luck, members of my family, generations from
now, will have a sense of where they came from and how I saw the
world.  I am sure that many would prefer that I left behind great
wealth, but that is the one thing that I have been unable to
accumulate.  They will know, however, that during my time on
earth I thought of them and left something which I hope they find
much more valuable than money.  
======================================================================