I just recently began rereading my favorite novel of the Civil War, Gettysburg.
I simply can't put it down. As you know, I visit Gettysburg each year, and this year will be no exception. I'm especially curious to see what changes the National Park Service has made to Little Round Top.
The site is scheduled to reopen to the public this summer.
I hope to either bike or run the battlefield again this year, though probably not on July 1-3, when the park is overrun with tourists.
We study history because history helps us to understand how past events made things the way they are today. That's as true as when I visited Masada in Israel as when I visited the Great Wall in China or Persepolis in Iran. Hopefully, we can develop the ability to avoid the mistakes of the past. A civilization that disregards history is like a person who has no long term memory. It's when we remember why we disliked touching a hot stove as a child that we don't do that today. My favorite prof at the University of Hawaii was my history prof. He asked questions like, "Why did the people of a certain era think and act the way they did? What influences motivated them to do so?" Most of the history classes I took in high school or college got hung up on names and dates. Those are not unimportant, but what's more important is understanding causes and effects,. It's the difference between knowing that the Roman Empire collapsed and why it collapsed. I am glad to hear that Little Round Top is reopening. You can't understand the present without understanding the past. Just try and understand the modern-day borders of France and Germany without Charlemagne!
