In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue... - John

This year is often remembered as the one where the British colonies first discovered North America, land that they would take for themselves and force the indigenous population out of. Kurt Vonnegut is right in stating that this was the year in which pirates robbed, cheated, and killed those who wished to live full and prosperous lives. It is not a year to remember for the brave and noble actions of the first explorers, but a year to mourn the loss and destruction of a once great group of people.

There's a well-known saying that's been accredited by Winston Churchill: History is written by the victors. This saying has been held to be true throughout history. Those who lose don't have the power to oppose those that win, so anything the winner declares will be stated as true and righteous. In this case, we are meant to see only the good as dictated by the conquerers, which is in this case the foreign pirates. We are also told so little and sometimes even nothing about the evils done to accomplish these goals, but simply ignoring the unsatisfactory truths will not yield a brighter future. By making those who are ignorant of the cruel injustices see the brighter side of things, they belittle the crimes that they committed to accomplish such goals. This is what is meant through the quote, as the children are meant to remember the year as a glorious year, where British colonies were first established, and not of the overtaking of the Natives' land.

This can also be seen clearly in the novel SH5, where the bombing of Dresden was suppose to be remembered as simply the means to an end, yet Vonnegut urges us to remember the people that had once lived in this town. This is why he describes the town in such a normal state, to show people that those fought in wars are not evil humans, but regular people. They live normals lives, toiling from day to day, like many people of the world. The bombing of Dresden is seen as a tragic event that had to have happened to ensure that the Germans surrendered, but through Billy's eyes, we can see that this is not the case. The young girls who lived in Dresden had done nothing wrong, but as Professor Rumford stated: "it had to be done". News of this bombing was also withheld until years into the future, where the impact of such news has been greatly diminished. This is an unjust act of violence and it should never have been committed and any and all future events as such shouldn't be grazed over as this event has been.

The quote demonstrates how people will try to forget the negatives through focusing on the positives, yet this is certainly not the proper method of handling the situation. By focusing on the positives, you do not eliminate the negatives. There will still be pain and suffering in the world even if you try to avoid them. The tralfamadorians focus solely on the positive side of life and ignore the bad things that do happen, yet if they themselves tried to stop unwanted events from occurring, they could have saved the engineer from testing the new fuel. It is not a good idea to leave the bad events as they are but to help correct them, since leaving bad things as they are will not change them for the better.