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February 26, 2003
TALLAHASSEE -- Lynne Cheney sat before a group of children Tuesday and held up an alphabet book she wrote on patriotism and American history.
The wife of Vice President Dick Cheney first turned to W, for George Washington, then to J, for Thomas Jefferson, and talked about their roles in establishing the idea that all men are created equal with certain inalienable rights. She talked about how those ideals eventually led to the abolition of slavery and women's right to vote.
Turning from J to K, she said, "On the other side of the page, here's Martin Luther King. And he helped us to be a better nation because he helped us to be a country in which we lived up to those ideals."
Cheney later addressed an older crowd, at a forum sponsored by Gov. Jeb Bush, but the lesson was the same: It's important to remember our history. "Our country is full of stories of men and women working to make our country great and greater still," she said. "Our children should know these stories so they can take up the task of making America a place where every person fully experiences his or her God-given rights."
Cheney, who has written six books and has spent much of her professional life speaking about the importance of history, stressed that learning about the past will help guide people into the future.
"The most important awareness is to just understand that history goes on and we all are a part of it and today we are creating the history of tomorrow," Cheney said.
Bush expressed the view that history often repeats itself. "There are people who don't appreciate history and how it can be used in everyday life or in anticipation of what's going to come in the future," the governor said.