Of War and Freedom

The sounds came early and thundering. There is an ordinance against fireworks in the city of Franklin, Tennessee. Surely no one would be so brazen as to shoot off that many rounds and repeat it in semi-regular intervals. Then I heard the heavier blasts. I stood outside on Battle Ave. It was a fine fall day for playing in the finally fallen leaves of several ancient trees. The ancients that sit on property that has been part of the city for over 125 years. There as we played chase, hide and seek, wagons rides and swinging from the ancient trees, the sounds went on. Ashamedly I forgot that it was the reenactment of the battle of Franklin, as in the Civil War. The sounds went on periodically all day.



That evening as I walked outside at 9:00 the sounds came once again. Could it be that a battle could go on all day and into the night? It never occurred to me that it was possible. But then, what would I know of war? Living in Vicksburg, Mississippi and playing in the battlefields there did not have any effect on my thinking evidently. I had walked the National Military Park, stood at the foot of impressive monuments, read lists of the war dead in certain locations, but never felt the war. The blasts from artillery finally pushed me over to reality.



But beyond that, I had a dream in the early hours of the morning. I was standing in a home we had once owned. It was in the most historical part of our city. It had windows that faced a horse farm across the road that had been part of a settlement from the 1800's. I loved living there.

But in this dream, upon opening the double front doors, I found myself standing behind a family assembled in order to have a picture made. Seeing only their backs, I heard the photographer speaking to them but it seemed a somber occasion. I heard the puffing sound and saw the smoke as he held his lantern up and took their picture. I immediately shut the doors so as not to be in their way, but realized I was not actually part of this scene. Looking out of the window I saw them, dressed in dark colors and embracing several men in their midst. The men were wearing uniforms, civil war uniforms, and the women were indeed dressed in the same period, their time in history.



Then, across the lawn I watched as the men left to follow other men marching down the road. The Irish stacked stone fences stood there as they would have in the real time. Soon coming behind them was another group of soldiers carrying flags that were war torn and shabby just as the soldiers uniforms.



Soon a line of soldiers carrying fresh flags appeared but behind them rolled wagons filled with wooden caskets covered with American and Confederate flags. Finally, the last line followed, uniforms tattered, some wounded, all weary and at the end was only an American flag. The drums tapped softly all along the way.



I felt the weight of it for the first time. The battles were real and the war was painful, brutal, and changed the face of this nation and it's families. The human toll unimaginable. Later that evening I tuned in to public television and there it was. The last installment of Ken Burns', "The Civil War". I had to watch it and had to write this.



I don't know about you, but I've lived a pretty protected life. I don't have physical battle scars. I've never spent a night holding a weapon to defend myself or to go after anyone else. Some of you have. It is happening all over this world every hour of every day.



I don't want to take war as a matter of fact. I also don't really want to experience it..in any form.
But knowing that someone paid a price for me and you and for freedom and for life, I am responsible for how I treat it. Those dream people represented families changed forever by a war. A war that could have destroyed our nation forever, but it didn't.

I am so aware that so many free nations do not get to keep their freedom when their war is over.
I am so thankful that we did. We are the United States of America, one nation, under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Lord, don't ever let me take this for granted again.