User:Brother Officer
From Wikisource
TO YOU, ONE OF "WE THE PEOPLE", LOOKING HERE FROM GOOGLE OR ELSEWHERE; I WRITE AND ASK --Many of you out there have passed through decades and perhaps your life is almost over. But whether young or middle aged or old during your time passing through Life you have gathered a lot of knowledge both good and bad. We all know that we will die someday. I ask, "Why take all of your good knowledge with you to the grave?
Do you not want to leave any of it behind when you can share the great things to those generations of the world that will come after us? Was your life all for nothing? What will we leave behind besides our children -- children that will learn? Will your life experiences ever be known to them? How can you make sure that whatever you leave behind will stay safe and not be destroyed in some manner? Why not apply your life of knowledge, those years of memories, to places like here, WikiSource or WikiPedia, or WikiCommons. Too difficult, no, not too difficult even though I once thought it would be. That was probably a sort of fear within me and perhaps within you to try to do something the world can read and/or see. I myself will not go to the grave taking all of my knowledge with me because I place it in areas like WikiPedia and Wiki Commons and WikiSource. All of these areas are free knowledge for people today and for those of the future. You can write articles or contribute bits and pieces of knowledge you have to articles already started. It is a sorrowful thing that people acquire so much knowledge during their life then die and take all of that to the grave with them -- knowledge perhaps never to be known to anyone. Sharing knowledge while using good manners and being friendly in communications is what makes all people a great people.
The World becomes a better place for our descendants in all of this. They will have to learn and they will learn but what will they learn? A lot of that depends upon you and me and the rest of the world right now. Sign up and contribute your knowledge to the world, You can create an alias as I have if you prefer not to use your real name. There is no pay -- this is an all volunteers situation just as it should be -- a handshake across the world to everyone who appreciates whatever you may contribute in writing. Internet is not going away! I think most of you know that. Information is stored for future generations and the last I read on a technology page on BBC news we are set to last one-thousand years with what we write on these "wiki" areas. "Wiki" is in the dictionary, it is not something fancy or complicated, it's more like fun once you start which is why I have been here for several years. I myself have never wanted to go to the grave and leave behind nothing but my sons. There is more to life than that for me and I hope to benefit, or have others that are writing to leave some of their knowledge here for my sons and for my grand children and others in the distant future that I will never know. -- wmm, former USN Vietnam, on Nov. 11, 2009 Veteran's Day -- a day to remember.
