Should Anyone be Praised or Vilified?

By: M. Gilchrist

History books are all full of important men who have changed the world: Napoleon, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton. However, could any of these figures have gotten to where they are today without women?

It is crucial to remember millions of women who are not written about. The women who cooked for their families, organized their household and mothered their children, all were part in enabling the men to build the theory of relativity, antibiotics and even create the telephone. They are the forgotten members of society whose contributions are just as valuable as any person whose name lies in a history book.

Is it important to recognize that human developments are not achieved by individual men or women but are built by many characters working together for the benefit of society. During this week and all our lives, it is crucial to acknowledge all humans equally.
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Should we study the past through the prism of individual men whose names populate the history books, or should we learn the waves of evolution that have run through time. Would the Second World War have been avoided had Hitler died at birth? Or was it because of the social and economic circumstances of the time? A single mark in history must not be pointed at an individual and instead be seen as a collective buildup.