ndrosen

My sister took me and her daughter to Valley Forge National Memorial (I may not have the name precisely right). Anyway, we went to the temporary Visitors Center (a permanent one is being constructed or enhanced), and then walked the trails, peeked into reconstructed cabins matching those where the remaining men (and a few women laundresses and such) of the Continental Army spent the winter of 1777-78, interacted with a costumed interpreter, went to see a redoubt, which signs warned us not to attempt to climb, and saw the sunset.

We had views of some lovely landscapes; we were also reminded of the sacrifices which men made for liberty and independence. I do not believe the American Revolution to have been a simple conflict between good and evil, and I believe, for example, that it was entirely right and commendable of the British government to try to prevent the colonists from further dispossessing the American Indians, one of the grievances mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. Nonetheless, a world in which Enlightenment values were codified in the Declaration and then in the United States Constitution is probably, for all its flaws, a better world than the alternative; and the United States of America is my country. As Carl Schurtz said: My country, right or wrong; when right to be kept right, and when wrong to be set right.

After the tour, we went to a restaurant for dinner.