There is currently an exhibit on campus that can teach Eastern students about world history, but in fact represents something even more important.

An exhibit opened Monday in Booth Library that details the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, in which thousands of civilians took to the streets to demand a democratic government and freedom from Soviet rule.

The uprising was eventually ended when Soviet forces entered the streets of the Hungarian capital Budapest and reestablished Soviet power.

The exhibit was made possible by Stephen Szigethy, a local man whose father participated in the uprising before relocating to Central Illinois.

But the exhibit does more than simply tell a story. It reminds us that events that seem to have taken place a long time ago in a faraway place may actually feel much more recent and be much closer to home than we realize.

Even in small communities, there exist connections to countries all over the globe and events that helped shape the world as it is today.

There are people around us with vastly different experiences from our own, and people whose families have taken very different paths to get to the same place.

No two people in a community got to that community the exact same way. They may have taken the same physical path to get there, but that is where most similarities end.

So if you go to see the exhibit, and we at The Daily Eastern News recommend that you do, take a moment and consider what it really means. Budapest in 1956 and Charleston in 2021 are much closer than it seems.