I am a big believer in educating everyone about history....in the hopes that knowing it will prevent some of it from happening again. The US Civil War is an important lesson; more than half a million people died in that 4 year conflict and the country was ravaged; some families never recovered economically or otherwise. And the root of it all was GREED. Some people wanted to have more and more and more, no matter what the cost to other people. I'm not talking just Southern slaveowners; the Northern industrialists who made huge profits on cheap cotton were also at fault. These high-class, wealthy, greedy people on both sides of the Mason-Dixon poured a lot of time, money, and talk into stirring up the average people until war seemed the only answer. The terrible and tragic consequences reverberate in our racially divided country today...and the saddest and most unjust thing to me is that the people who bear the worst brunt of all this even today..our black citizens...were the only blameless ones, the true victims in the whole sorry mess.
So, if you have a chance to visit Gettysburg, I suggest you put aside your romantic beliefs about the War, the Lost Cause, and all the other nonsense; go to the Visitors Center and see their film and diorama, really listen to what it has to tell you. Look at the museum exhibits (at the VC and throughout the town). Visit the National Cemetery. You'll be educated and hopefully enlightened...and hopefully we'll all sober up and realize that as Lincoln said "A house divided....cannot stand."
The Visitors Centers is run by the National Parks Service and the presentation there is mind-blowing. The huge circular diorama multimedia presentation is amazing....you stand on a big circular platform and all around you is a painted scene of the day of the battle on July 3 1863. The lighting changes as the day begins and progresses, you hear (and feel!) artillery shells exploding and you can see the flashes of light from the explosions. You hear horses and men and wagons....and what's even more amazing is that as you peer down over the rails you can see "real" scenery that blends seamlessly into the painted walls....it's as if you're standing on a small hilltop in the middle of the battlefield. This is not to be missed!
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Cooler today; we had a front with some rain go through overnight. Got a lot of rain yesterday afternoon; driving home from G.burg (about an hour from my house) was sketchy...there were points in the trip where I wondered if I should pull over but kept slogging along. Today, Carlisle PA and the huge car flea market/swapmeet/car corral... I hope it's not too hot up there...I hate trudging through acres of chrome and sheet metal in the blazing sun, but this is R's hobby and we must we must... *sigh* I keep threatening to take him to a public garden but I never do. It would be like having a whining 4 year old at my heels *LOL*.
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