Those who don't know history are condemned to repeat its mistakes. If you apply this
 theory to Wednesday's 9/11 anniversary, it could be said that elected officials who
 don't know history are condemned to recite the Gettysburg Address like sixth-grade
 civics students.

Certainly, Mayor Bloomberg blew it with a ceremony so drained of its life-blood --
 thanks to elected officials who think oration is merely narration -- that it could
 be declared Kosher. But you don't have to believe me. Take if from someone who DOES
 know history.

"There are so many things [politicians] could have said to put Sept. 11th in
 perspective," said historian Barnet Schecter, author of "The Battle For New York:
 The City at the Heart of the American Revolution," which, by explaining New York's
 battle against the British, explains our battle against terror today.

After all, there are many similarities between Sept. 1776 and Sept. 2001, including
 the destruction of the city's tallest building and the devastation of the lower
 west side of Manhattan.

But it is the DISSIMILARITIES between 9/15/76 and 9/11/01 that could comfort us
 today: In 1776, the victorious British army did more than just burn down Trinity
 Church. It imposed martial law, it turned churches into stables and manor houses
 into prisons, it starved and killed 11,000 people on prison barges, and it let
 garbage and sewage collect in the streets.

And it did it for seven long years. The New York City of 1776 -- which was its era's
 world trade center -- was desecrated.

And yet, the city came back. The "terrorists" didn't win.

"And America was not nearly as strong a country as it is today," Schecter pointed
 out. "There was doubt whether the country would even survive after the Revolution.
 And yet, it not only survived, but thrived."

That's what politicians should be pointing out, Schecter said.

"It would be reassuring for a politician to point out that 226 years ago, not far
 from where they'll be gathering on Wednesday, this island was attacked and occupied
 for seven years," he said. "The same genius and spirit that saved them can save us
 today."

Wednesday's lackluster ceremony gives little comfort to those who hope to properly
 memorialize the World Trade Center and its victims. Of course, short memories are a
 New York tradition. Just look at the corner of Third Avenue and Ninth Street in
 Brooklyn -- New York's original Ground Zero -- where several hundred soldiers died
 in a valiant effort to buy time for George Washington to retreat to fight another
 day.

This spot is one of the most important gravesites in our nation, yet there is no
 grand memorial, just a faded plaque installed in the 1950s by the State Department
 of Education.

Makes you wonder if our current crop of "leaders" will do better this time.

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gersh.kuntzman@verizon.net