By: Joshua Caldwell

It was a Thursday night and after a long shift at work I decided to decompress, grab a beer and catch the end of the Red Sox game. As I sat waiting for my Shipyard Pumpkin Head with the cinnamon sugar rim, I noticed a man sitting a couple of seats down with a scowl taking over his face. He was older in age, on the precipice of the WWII generation, and had lived through Korea and Vietnam.

This particular night the Red Sox were playing the Rays. I was pleased as we watched the spectacular Koji Uehara walk on the mound. I commented that he was an amazing closer and having an absolutely historical year. The older gentleman to my left simply replied we should have finished them all off, wiped them all out with nukes when we had the chance.

I tell you this because this gentleman constantly lives in the past, his prejudice is fueled by his constant need to never forget. We as a country can, and will, fall into this never-ending circle of what I refer to as “half-progression;” never allowing ourselves to move on, to heal.

It can be seen on the anniversaries of some of the most tragic events in our history, this mantra of “Never Forgetting.” Americans in particular tend to be caught up in this “Never Forget” mentality. By feeding into this culture, we hinder our ability to move on and move forward.

This impedance of progression is exacerbated by this adopted slogan and can be seen time and time again, most recently in the form of racism towards the winner of the Miss America pageant. Nina Davuluri is the first woman of Indian descent to win Miss America. She is from New York and is a Dean’s list student who graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in brain behavior and cognitive science. Yet all of these achievements seem to be null and void by the fact that she is of Indian decent. When her crowning was announced, the Internet was ablaze with horrendous racial pronouncement varying from calling her a terrorist and “Miss Al-Qaeda” to crowning her Miss 7-11. It is this type of absolute ignorance that stems from a culture that cannot move forward; a culture that can never forget.

Those who do not heed the past are doomed to repeat it, but those who live in it constantly are constricted to the same fate. If we want to foster a culture of progression and equality, “pillars” we as American’s in particular pride ourselves on, it is imperative to escape this “Never Forget” mentality before we find ourselves permanently stuck in a state of never forgiving.