Major League Cojones
Everytime I drive east, as I did last weekend, I complain to whomever is in the car with me how much I dislike driving on the Pennslvania Turnpike and the mountains. Even worse is the West Virginia Turnpike, which positively gives you motion sickness even if you watch your speed…curvy, twisty, hilly, and get me the paper bag in the back seat….quick!!
Midst the twists and the turns, however, my inner history buff gets the best of me. Could somebody please tell me how our forefathers found their way through those dang mountains? How did John Young get to Youngstown? These guys had to have major league cojones to load up their families in mule drawn wagons and trek through the wilderness, through God knows what, to set up settlements in the west. How did they do it? Where did they get the guts?
At the Breezewood exit on the PA Turnpike, there is a sign to Gettysburg. Why would Robert E. Lee decide to fight the union army…there? I can imagine the confederate and the union troops marching through those hills, through all sorts of weather, without nearly enough provisions or clothing. On their worst day, those folks had much more intestinal fortitude than I could ever hope to have.
I think about my grade school projects centered on the centennial of the Civil War. Slavery, states’ rights, and preservation of the Union, are concepts that are far away in time and space, but not really. My 4th grade teacher neglected to tell us that slavery was not just a “deep south” institution. Virginia was just 30 miles down the road from Youngstown. What is now West Virginia, just across the Ohio River, was part of slave state Virginia prior to the Civil War. Slavery was just down Route 11. It brings the issue home.
Think about these folks, who moved across mountains to find a better life, and fought to the death on both sides of an issue to preserve their individual view of the nature of our country’s union. These were brave and principled people.
Which one of us today could even come close to these folks? We have lost sight of the importance of principles, God, and freedom. I drive through Pennsylvania in my comfy car with heated seats, XM Radio, On Star giving me navigation, talking to family members at home on my cell or car phone, on my way to stay in a hotel whose sole flaw was a cold bathroom….and, yes, I complained about it.
With our schools too busy teaching politically correct subject matter, progressive concepts, and revisionist history, how do we as a nation find our way back? I hope that at some time in the future our educational system will once again teach just how brave, independent, and free those folks were, who forged the trail in this country, both literally and figuratively.
Midst the twists and the turns, however, my inner history buff gets the best of me. Could somebody please tell me how our forefathers found their way through those dang mountains? How did John Young get to Youngstown? These guys had to have major league cojones to load up their families in mule drawn wagons and trek through the wilderness, through God knows what, to set up settlements in the west. How did they do it? Where did they get the guts?
At the Breezewood exit on the PA Turnpike, there is a sign to Gettysburg. Why would Robert E. Lee decide to fight the union army…there? I can imagine the confederate and the union troops marching through those hills, through all sorts of weather, without nearly enough provisions or clothing. On their worst day, those folks had much more intestinal fortitude than I could ever hope to have.
I think about my grade school projects centered on the centennial of the Civil War. Slavery, states’ rights, and preservation of the Union, are concepts that are far away in time and space, but not really. My 4th grade teacher neglected to tell us that slavery was not just a “deep south” institution. Virginia was just 30 miles down the road from Youngstown. What is now West Virginia, just across the Ohio River, was part of slave state Virginia prior to the Civil War. Slavery was just down Route 11. It brings the issue home.
Think about these folks, who moved across mountains to find a better life, and fought to the death on both sides of an issue to preserve their individual view of the nature of our country’s union. These were brave and principled people.
Which one of us today could even come close to these folks? We have lost sight of the importance of principles, God, and freedom. I drive through Pennsylvania in my comfy car with heated seats, XM Radio, On Star giving me navigation, talking to family members at home on my cell or car phone, on my way to stay in a hotel whose sole flaw was a cold bathroom….and, yes, I complained about it.
With our schools too busy teaching politically correct subject matter, progressive concepts, and revisionist history, how do we as a nation find our way back? I hope that at some time in the future our educational system will once again teach just how brave, independent, and free those folks were, who forged the trail in this country, both literally and figuratively.
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