Gettysburg

In the Northeast corner of the Gettysburg Battlefield a flame burns bright against the clear blue Pennsylvania sky. Eastern blue birds sing and flit back and forth along a split rail fence claiming their territory, or at least their favorite perch. One of the sides of the monument reads, "An Enduring Light to Guide Us in Unity and Fellowship". If only every American could travel here and read the message carved in stone.
In our travels we have visited Vicksburg, Fort Sumter, Antietam, and now Gettysburg. They all tell of the same messages. We fought for states rights, we fought because free slaves would take our jobs, we fought to end slavery, or we fought to preserve the Union....

The Battlefield itself is covered with monuments, Little Round Top, the Peach Field, the Wheat field, Devils Den, Cemetery Ridge and the Copse of Trees. The monuments all tell of the sacrifice our ancestors paid. The Pennsylvania Monument dominates the battlefield, and rightly so, but there are so many others including the Louisiana Statue standing across the mile wide field memorialized by Pickets charge.

I  have always been interested in the history of our country and why we fought the Civil War and sadly it seems to me we fought because the end of slavery meant the loss of so much money to wealthy slave owners and the loss of their way of life.
The parallels today of what is happening in our country and the greed that seems to drive it all sickens me. I was raised a Catholic and the Bibles Beautitudes were hammered into me by sisters who dedicated their lives to teaching me what is really important in life, and so I became a teacher.  If only people could see what we have seen and traveled the roads we have traveled......Clear skies