If you could go to any event in history..

[Kashagi]

Sometimes when I lie down, trying to sleep, I imagine a concept in my head, if I could go to any event in history at all. If I could stand there amidst it all, and yet, not really be there... I will feel like I am living, yet I cant be seen, acknowledged, I cant feel pain wherever I am and I cannot die.

I say these last two ones, because whenever I wonder where I would go, my head always seems to travel to 1945, August 6th to be precise... The day the first Atomic bomb destroyed life.

I just try to imagine it from different perspectives, even though you are not really there, imagine standing in the middle of it all when that blinding light hits you, that mushroom cloud rises up. Imagine watching it from the outskirts of the bomb area, watching the city collapes in one nuclear wave, watching the people around you, their reactions.. What happens to them.

Imagine what the hell it must look like to stand right in the centre, right below the point of detonation. To see the effects of the unbearable heat and yet not be able to feel it, to watch the people around you melt away in an instant.. I think I would suffer enough trauma without the physical aspect just to witness this.

Imagine dropping from the plane with the bomb, knowing whats about to happen.. Watching that city come closer, waiting for the explosion thats going to go off right beside you...

I always try to imagine what this would be like, and it terrifies me just to imagine. But what about you? If you could go anywhere at all in history.... Where would you go? Why?

 

[The Roid Rage]

Well, That was kind of a disturbing idea, being at ground zero of a nuclear attack. I don't think that is where I would want to be or where I would want to go. Going over the course of history leaves a lot of events for people to consider. I'm not sure people could think of just one point in history or one event in the history of the world they would want to attend or observe.

I think it would have been interesting to go to the first Olympic games, or to have attended the opening day games at the Coliseum. Those would be interesting. Or imagine if you were around when the first form of literature was produced, and to have read it. You could go on to the first days of Electricity, or the automobile. There is a ton of stuff. Imagine what it would have been like to see the Sistine Chapel when it was first painted, or the Mona Lisa when it was first revealed. What would it have been like to witness the birth of Christ, to be one of the wise men who traveled to Bethlehem to see the new born king?


I myself would have loved to witness most of American history. As far as events go, I would have loved to be witness to the many great professional boxing matches that took place from the early 1900's to the 1950's and 60's. I would have loved to have been able to have seen the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the forming of our Constitution, the first Presidential elections, The industrial revolution's impact here in the states, or to be able to go back to the days of the Cowboys and Indians in the old west, witnessing the California gold rush, the first locomotive, the evolution of modern medicine in America, on and on. There is so much rich history to look back on it is tough to name on place, time, or event.

Looking back at other world events, think of what it would have been like to see ancient Egypt in it's glory days, or the Roman Empire at it's heights. Think of what the dark ages would have been like and what your eyes may have seen in those days. Even go back to prehistoric times, imagine being able to walk amongst the dinosaurs and prehistoric man. What would it have been like to ride a Woolly Mammoth, or to hunt Saber-tooth Tigers and other animals of those times? There is much to ponder. I think just about any of it would be pretty insane.

 

[One Punch Doug Crashin]

This isn't an event merely EVENTS. I find myself fascinated by China's Three Kingdoms and Japan's Warring States period in history. Imagine, seeing Lu Bu, arguably the greatest warrior in history. Maeda Keiji, Takeda Shingen, Cao Cao. You also can see Honda Tadekastu and the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate. What I wouldn't do to see battles like, the Battle of Sekigahara, the battles of Kawanakajima between Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen.

 

[X]

Without a doubt it would be the Woodstock music festival in the summer of 1969. I've seen the documentary and the actual show on DVD maybe a million times, I can practically recite the entire film line by line including the musical performances and to me there has never been a more idyllic time and place than the 60s and Woodstock was the last big hurrah of that decade. Since this is only one event we can choose, I'm going with Woodstock no doubt about it. The greatest concert of all time and a massive gathering of people for three days of real peace, love, and harmony without a single case of violence or theft. For three days on a farm in New York, the world was perfect.

Maybe not a historically significant event, but one of the most culturally important. I can only imagine the awesomeness of awakening to Jimi Hendrix playing a distorted version of the Star Spangled Banner on his guitar and shredding it up.

 

[lghikas]

Hmm any event in history I'm sure I could of plenty but I will keep it too a couple of events that stand out for me. Being a History buff, all these events have always been drawn to learning about them.

1) The Official Surrender of the British Army of the Revolutionary War. This was an unprecedented event and made it official that a group of farmers with pitchforks had beaten the Best Army the world had seen. And would change history as it was known and than the experiment had begun.

2) George Washington's Farewell Address. In the address Washington talked about things that are even relevant in today's times, such as term limits, political parties or even getting involved in other countries problems.

Umm some others I would be interesting seeing..JFK inauguration speech..MLK's I Have a Dream speech...When Francis Scott Key came up and wrote The National Anthem.

 

[Razor]

I want to be there at Auschwitz, during the height of the horrors that occurred there.

We all look back at the Holocaust and say "Oh, that sucked. That was horrific." But we don't know horror. We don't know pain. We don't know what it was like to live in a time where your countrymen, family, kin were being burned alive or worked to death because they were Jewish/Gypsy/Gay/and so on.

I want to go back to Auschwitz to give those people a voice. To be able to feel what they went through, to see the horror that some lived through and most others died knowing. I want to be able to come back and tell everyone what it was like in those camps, and speak from my heart. Speak from knowledge.

No, I'm not some Sadomasochist that loves to see people tortured. I believe that the greatest respect I could give to these people would be to see what they had to suffer, and see the cold reality that was their world. We can look at pictures, we can look at artifacts, we can look at the sign overhead "Arbeit Mact Frie" (Work sets you free in German). But to be there? It would give a whole new meaning to empathy. I would consider it an honor to be able to put their suffering to words.