Resaca is rich in history. One of the first Confederate Cemeteries in Georgia is off of Highway 41 in Resaca. It is mind boggling to try to imagine six thousand soldiers dying in a three day battle in Resaca. Ever since we moved here I have tried to imagine how the people who lived here over 145 years ago must have felt. I can't imagine that anybody had a choice about how they felt about the civil war. When soldiers started marching and pillaging and burning everything in sight, I imagine, everybody was ready to fight . . . not for slavery, but for their homes and their families and their animals and any food they may have had. Most people probably didn't have slaves. There were lots of poor white people that lived in the south who scratched out a living from the soil and didn't want to watch their homes being destroyed and didn't see it in the clear light of 20-20 hind sight.
There has been plenty of bloodshed on this land that was sacred and belonged to the American Indians long before Europeans discovered America. Resaca is also close to the Cherokee Indian Capitol, New Echota, where Sequoyah wrote the Cherokee Indian Alphabet. The Indians in Northwest Georgia were rounded up and forced from their native home lands and marched to Oklahoma in the Trail of Tears. They were displaced from every place that became of value to the white man. The Indians were forced to move where the white men thought they should be. They were put on reservations and forced to abandon their native culture. When gold was discovered in Dahlonega the white prospectors rushed in and the Indians were displaced. They were forced farther and farther away. Every time we wanted the Indians property, treaties have been broken. There are not many Indians around here anymore.
America has had a bloody history but America is better and greater for the struggles that we have endured. We are a united country and believe in freedom for all. We now struggle to honor history while learning lessons from the past. We can never erase our past but we must also never forget the past so as not to repeat it.
We must remember that America is not one group of people but many different people from many different parts of the world who came to live in a country in which we are all free. We may not always agree with our fellow men but we recognize their right to express their opinions and voice their concerns without fear of oppression from the government.
America is one of the greatest democracies in the world. In America everyone is free. When America was founded the constitution applied to all white men as being free. Black men were entitled to vote after the Civil War but were not always free to vote until after the Civil Rights movement. Women, white and black, didn't earn the right to vote until long after black men were legally allowed to vote. American immigrants were confined during World War II. But in those and any other struggles and fights we have grown and evolved to include everyone under the law.
I am so thankful that I was born in the United States in the 20th century. Women are free to live their lives and make their own choices. Women are as free as men are in America. Women can aspire to become doctors or lawyers on anything else. Women can meet and marry anyone they love, without fear. Women can own and inherit property.
America is a melting pot. You can be American and you can be Native American, English, Irish, Dutch, German, French, Asian, African, Indian, Latino, Jewish, etcettera or any combination but you are still an American. I think America is the greatest democracy in the world because it it the only country in the world that has evolved from Europeans and Asians and Africans and people from all over the world. That is why we have to endure to guarantee every person the right to live freely without fear of persecution because of race, creed, or religion.
Sometimes the biggest clouds bring the heaviest showers of blessings. I agree with you that America is better for the struggles. You can say that about a lot of things about life.
ReplyDeleteI can't wrap my mind around all those father's, sons, husbands dieing in just three days. And what happened with the Indians can never be made up for. We can only hope for a better future but as you said this will only be accomplished by remembering our past and teaching our children about it. They are our future and it will be in their hands to make sure we don't repeat our mistakes.