Why study history

I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I HAVE TO STUDY HISTORY

Well, one of the reasons I study history

it can help us be more fair.  if you don't know about it, it can be unfair. Example, your brother gets a lollipop. you say, tomorrow you can have the lollipop. Then the next day, your brother grabs the lollipop but I remind him that yesterday he got the lollipop. So he lets me have it.  It has a happy ending.

it helps us follow through on our promises/builds integrity

(our government has no sense of history)

if it happened once, it can happen again.  if we aren't paying attention, we aren't learning from what has happened before

it helps us learn from past failures and successes
the pipeline.  the people who are building the pipeline say it is safe & won't leak.  In 2010 a pipeline spill in North Dakota leaked over 800,00 gallons of crude oil onto farmland.  Pipelines leak. Things break down.  It is a fact.

history helps us make better points and build better arguments 

history helps us understand, appreciate and protect our land.

history helps us understand, appreciate and exercise our rights was slavery fair? was it fair how the government and society treated and sometimes still treats people from different races than us? if someone says that an entire group of people, if somebody says all arabs are murderers and liars. Each person has their own personality. you can't assume that all arabs are anything. How do you know?

how has studying history helped in the fight for marriage equality? 

Gays have had to fight for their rights for a long time.  If we don't pay attention to how gays have fought and just paid attention to their most recent struggles how could we know how much protesting they have done. And how would we know how strong they are. history inspires us to keep struggling and reminds us that we are strong.

History showed us that "marriage" has changed frequently.  It is not a "natural, unchanging law." It is created by people and governments and institutions.  They have changed it before.  It can change again. If it happened once, it can happen again. 
(i can escape my mom's hugs.  i can escape oppression)
Questioning history matters.  Who is telling the story? What are they leaving out? Who has the power to tell the story?