Listening for the echoes of history, here in Kansas and across the United States

Virtually all of the articles that I have written for Kansas Reflector and for other publications have been about agriculture.

That is a byproduct of this Kansas farm boy’s upbringing. The land, and the people who tend to it, are topics close to my heart. That said, these are troubling times, and my heart and mind tell me that this nation, and others, have lost their way. Society is fraying, and at a pace that should be deeply troubling to anyone with a sense of history. That is apparent at the Republican-dominated state legislature in Kansas as well as at the highest levels of the federal government.

Over the past six decades, my career and personal interests have taken me to various corners of the world, and I have dealt with some of the richest of the rich, and the poorest of the poor — from the standpoint of material wealth — during my travels. I have seen some of the worst, and some of the best, of humankind.

I will carry those experiences with me until my dying day.

Experiences give us perspective, and coupled with education, they help us to connect the dots and draw parallels from the past to current events. Civilization is diminished when we ignore the lessons of history and fail to act with respect to people and events that we know are simply not right.

Sometimes an event, or a book, will enable a person to pull together those experiences in a way that is a sort of early warning sign that we have lost our way, in the United States or other parts of the world.

For me, a cathartic moment came from a book that I read recently. It is called Time’s Echo: the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance. As the author Jeremy Eichler stated, it is about “the role of music … as a witness to history and as a carrier of memory for a post-Holocaust world.”

He notes that World War II caused “a tear in the fabric of humanity, resulting in deep trauma, grief, and scarring.”  And he reminds us that “music remembers us.”

All of this is pertinent to today’s world, and especially in the United States. Most of us know what is right and what is wrong. But the book notes: “The future will not judge us for forgetting, but for remembering all too well and still not acting in accordance with those memories.” As former President Biden mused in his speech at the Democratic convention — what will our legacy be? What will the children say?

One need not be a historian to know that the path undertaken by the current regime lacks a moral compass. Power corrupts, and those who cannot see the parallels between this regime and those in power in the times leading up to World War II are taking us down a path that will not end well.

It is an inflection point in history.

Those of us who recognize the situation have to decide what we do and where we go from here. May we choose wisely and well, and may our example be remembered by generations to come.

Ben Palen is a Kansas native and a fifth-generation farmer and agriculture consultant in Colorado and Kansas. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.