Out of the Past

Walking along today under 200 year old Live Oak trees where the children of American slaves played in meager shade (the trees were young then) reminded me of how important it is to remember our history as a Nation. I visited three of the homes that are left along the Mississippi River in Louisiana that were not burned to the ground during the un-Civil War, and saw there the remains of a society so very different from ours, it is hard to imagine.

I took a picture of a Live Oak tree that the current owner says is 300 to 400 years old. It is still growing and strong, and it was there before the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the formation of our form of Government.

I fear for our Country. Almost everyone in power is willing to say or do practically anything to maintain their hold on that power. Our Constitution is being flexed right out of meaning anything at all on a permanent basis, and the Declaration of Independence is ridiculed in many circles when we talk about “inalienable right” with which our Creator has endowed us.

I am sure I am just being old fashioned – but I believe in personal liberty, freedom to live as God designed, and learning that my happiness is a choice that only I can make. We learn history better when we walk the same ground, stand under the same trees, and read the same book that made us who we are as a people.

Abandoning our history will help us fail in this great experiment in building a “representative republic” form of Government.