The Liberty Bell's Still Cracked

We just returned from a trip to Philly, hugging cousins we hadn’t seen in years and touring a few historical sites.

Considering the craziness going on today—Christine O’Donnell declaring, “I’m not a witch (honey, have you checked the mirror?) and then suggesting that evolution never existed, it was a relief to read the inspirational quotes from Franklin, Jefferson, Hancock, and Adams.

Lately, seeing what's out there, it’s hard to tell the good guys from the bad.

I loved Obama and voted for him.   Yes, he’s made mistakes, but it seems the majority’s giving up on him already.  Have people forgotten he wasn’t in office when the banks fell apart, and he didn’t start the war in Afghanistan?   Still the Republicans are ready to attack before he opens his mouth.  Come on, we're making progress.  Jobs are happening.  We got a health care bill and stem cell research.

Obama's gonna turn out to be the good guy after all.

And how about John McCain?   He used to be a national icon.  Wasn’t he the soul driven maverick fighting for the truth?  But when his senate race became tight, the war hero flipped faster than a cowardly killer surrounded by the feds, and that was after he unlocked Sarah Palin from her cage and set her free.

Maybe there's still time for redemption.

We traveled to Gettysburg and heard the many stories, saddened 147 years after the fact.  In the three days of fighting from July 1st through 3rd in 1863, there were 51,000 casualties.

51,000, and everyone was American.

Not all the casualties died.  The number also included the wounded—many of whom later succumbed to infection—and those taken prisoners of war.

But were the soldiers from the South truly evil?

Although the North made a big deal of burying their dead in individual graves while the South pushed their heroes into massive pits, several soldiers from the opposite sides got mixed into each.  And when the rains began pounding on the shallow graves, many of the swollen bodies floated above ground, and it became difficult to identify the "good" from the "bad."  

But no one had time to care because the second nightmare soon began.

Hordes of parents descended upon the town to find their missing children.  It was often an impossible task.  The battle was fought over 10 square miles, and the injured and dead were everywhere.

Every house and building in this quaint college town of 2,400 became a hospital or hotel, every pasture, a cemetery.  Residents lost their possessions, their homes, their entire livelihoods.  Overnight their farmland became hallowed ground.

Who were the good and the bad?  Parents from both sides broke down together.

On the way back, we drove through Philadelphia again and peeked at the Liberty Bell.  Still cracked, thank heaven. 

Some guys in England did a lousy job casting, and the patriots left it for the world to see.  Over time we’ve come to cherish this failure because it magnifies our imperfections and struggles—all the bad that now represents our good.

Unfortunately, it often takes years to decide which is which. 
Let's wait and give Obama a chance.