“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” How many of us have heard this quote or a variation of it? Sayings like these are repeated so often nowadays that they have lost meaning. People will complain, “I don’t need you to lecture me, I already know all this,” “The past is the past, leave it behind where it belongs,” or a blatant dismissal from those who are so cemented in the now, that they refuse to see the truth right in front of them.
Shireen Afzal
Shireen is in her 3rd year of a joint degree in English and Biology at York University. Shireen took a Facing History and Ourselves course, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity when she was in Grade 11. That year, she won an international student writing contest, sponsored by Facing History and Ourselves. She was also awarded the first Student Upstander Award.