Bloody Ground

This weekend we stopped by the Gettysburg National Military Park which has a brand new museum and visitor center, much of it is funded by Northrup Grumman. For some historians the Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point in America's Civil War. The fact that hundreds of books, new ones each year, are written about America's Civil War are testament to this wound that still scars our history.


The photo above seems so sterile compared to the lives lost and blood soaked ground that it represents.

"In the aftermath of the battle, every farm field was a graveyard and every church, public building and even private homes were hospitals."

While reading some information about this war I came across this quote:

"The most astute theologian of the crisis, a layperson named Abraham Lincoln, framed the issue in simple terms: "Both sides read the same Bible and pray to the same God." And since they prayed for different outcomes, "the prayers of both could not be answered." In an environment like ours in which the role of religion in public life is energetically debated and values such as freedom are said not to be "America's gift to the world" but instead "'God's gift to humanity," the Civil War provides a cautionary tale about the limits of religious belief in guiding a democracy."

Sound familiar? I guess what amazes me is how easily some folks take the high ground without a second thought. They clearly have a clearer channel to the pure truth than I do.

Post Script

I certainly started an interesting discussion on the blog entry below and I guess in the back of my mind thought I might do that and almost did not make this entry. Had this child been older and recognizable, I would not have posted this photo. But she will look very different in a few months. I think this Western society can no longer see sexuality as basic biology that is important to our survival as a species.

We all have masculine and feminine attributes from birth that are important and make us who we are. I do not feel these in and of themselves are bad or should be ignored. They make us the unique adults that we become. Some of us will have real struggles with these traits in a society that so objectifies everyone. I do agree that focusing on these attributes and ignoring a child's intelligence, personality, and health while raising the child is not a good thing. But I do think this is a LARGE leap to say we are 'objectifying' a child while recognizing their femininity or masculinity.