8/28 Restoring Honor Rally

The words, "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America" meant more to me that day than just about ever. Standing, hand over heart, I got to pledge my allegiance to this country with half a million others. Where else can you do that with that many people? It was a powerful punch of pathos for all present. To sum up my impressions on the entire event, one word comes to mind: Hope.

I stayed the night the night before the Restoring Honor Rally near D.C. with a couple of my best friends. We woke up early Saturday morning and took the metro into D.C. One of the most impressionable elements of the whole experience was the travel time inside the train. I was surrounded by hundreds, thousands of good people. Everywhere I looked was the epitome of kindness, courtesy, respectability. If I could earn a dollar for each smile I saw, I'd be rich. Men were gentlemen, women were ladylike. I heard "pardon me", "after you", "would you like my seat", and "thank you" so many times. Clean language, clean dress, clean people! I felt like I could trust anyone around me, even with a child. It was very impressive and reassuring. Seeing this mix of people was a testimony to me that this event was a good thing. Look at the fruits. And, seeing this mix of people reminded me that there are many good people in this country and in the world.

Well, the metro dropped us off right outside George Washington University. Even though the bottlenecking of the station exit produced horrific heat and congestion, I never heard an angry expletive escape anyone. Good people.

My friends and I walked to the Mall where we joined around 500,000 supporters of restoring honor to our country. The massive crowds, though, didn't produce a feeling like an overgrown concert or anything rowdy at all. Plus, there were no demonstrations against the rally, only a couple of low-budget signs mocking Glenn Beck and venerating MLK. Ironically, the majority of those who spoke were African American, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s own neice, Dr. Alveda King.

Glenn Beck's simple call for our nation to return to Faith, Hope, and Charity was so powerful. But in order to appeal to so many, the rally included several interest groups that diluted that beautifully simple message. Nonetheless, I really think the rally was a great thing for our country. I think it gave courage to those seeking good in our country. I think it gave clout to the movement for a moral, small-yet-dignified American government. I'm so glad I was able to be a small part of the rally.

America has great hope!

Ragnar Relay

It's the peak of the afternoon sun, 90+ degrees, in beautiful-hilly Maryland, and it's my turn. Troy is coming in strong and he hands off the team wrist band. I steadily gallop away on a nice downhill slope, feeling great! Then, the 1,000 foot climb in under three miles faces me. After barely making it up alive, my team cheers me on. I never felt so much like Jason Bourne before in my life.

At about 2 a.m. it's my turn again. This time, the sun is gone. There is even a little breeze. The coolness invigorates me. We are now in farming country of lower Maryland. The moon is so bright you could get a moon burn. Endless wheat fields and slumbering livestock are exposed in the white glow. It's so peaceful. I am so distracted from all of it that the reality of running in the middle of the night does not sink in.

About twelve hours later, it's my last leg! I'm tired but excited! I start running through a familiar park in Kensington, Maryland. Melting and pretty tired, I turn a bend to see the LDS D.C. Temple and wow!

What a special experience for me. I can't describe it very well except that it touched me. I really feel it was a tender mercy that I got the one stretch of the 200 mile relay race to see the Temple. Wow! It was just one of those special times. I had been to this temple a few times before but it was just really awesome and it motivated me so much. Here is a picture I took on my leg:

So, I'll cut to the chase and let everyone know about what I am talking about. Some new friends over here invited me on this relay race (called the Ragnar Relay) from Cumberland, Maryland to Washington D.C. It's about 200 miles and there are 12 runners per team. Your team runs non-stop starting Friday morning and finishes during the afternoon or evening on Saturday. Each runner gets three legs of 3-11 miles each. So everyone runs a total of about 17 miles. It's a hairy beast and I wasn't really prepared for it but the blessings of youth were on my side :) It was an incredible experience. I think a smaller version would be so much fun to do as a family. It's quite the bonding experience to say the least.

We rented these giant vans and the girls wrote all over them. It's a costume event so teams wore things like tutus, kilts, wings, etc. People there went all out. We were villains and superheros and had on gaudy patches with our respective villain/hero. Who was I, you ask? They gave me Captain America!

Like most, I've always loved the outdoors, seeing new places (especially beautiful places), and trying to be active so this was such a great experience for me. Besides the smelly vans, lack of sleep, and insects, it was amazing! To give you a little taste of how beautiful it was, look at this picture I took on one of my legs:

To top it off, we ended the race right on the National Harbor. I took this just before our anchor runner came in. It was a beautiful evening:

Jamestown

I drove on a beautiful pebble-paved road that softly slices through the relentless foliage of Virginia. The sun burst through the leaves as it glided slowly toward the west horizon. Any sunlight remaining illuminated the smooth meadows, exposing the families of deer as they ate the grass. Geese flew in formation while gliding reverently across the James River. This is where it all began for our country (well, Roanoke was actually before but those settlers all vanished so we don't know the full story of that venture). Wow!

Though it was conceived for the sole purpose of profit, and although it failed once, and although its redeeming venture involved the source of the first lung cancer in America, this place represents the fibers of ingenuity and adventure deeply woven in our nation.

I went back with some friends and we sailed a ship (well, kind of), visited a fabulous museum full of interactive exhibits of 17th-century Britain, the Powhatan people, Christopher Newport (the main Captain on the voyage to Jamestown), the voyage of Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery, the Virginia Company Charter, and of course John Rolfe, John Smith, and Pocahontas. It was so much fun!

Next, we went into the three ship replicas. One of the most interesting things I learned here was that the ship wheel wasn't even conceived until around 1700. So all those big ships were steered by a long beam that was attached to the shaft for the rudder. I never knew.

They had several cannons on these ships. I learned that they didn't just use the conventional cannon ball, but they used ammo with a chain connecting two pieces and even ones with wooden cases full of shrapnel. Paul and I couldn't subdue our inner little-boy so we played around with these big guns:

Man, they really had small men back then :)

We also used oyster shells to help carve a canoe like the Powhatan people did. Here's the finished product:

The Lincoln Memorial

As my eyes glided up his statue, I felt a piercing sense of respect and honor for this simple politician from Illinois.

I turned to my left and let the simple eloquence of the Gettysburg Address brush me. To the right was inscribed Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. This speech was humbly offered on March 4, 1865, as the Union's victory was virtually certain. The words are beautiful, full of hope and forgiveness. But the raw material of the speech is nothing but smoke alone. It is the context of this invocation that merits its notability.

Lincoln, having been stripped of any signs of health or youth, having severally maiming his marriage, and having watched the bloodiest war of U.S. history unfold before him against his deepest pleas, had every earthly right as President to wave the swift and heavy arm of justice upon the South. He never wanted a war. He never even wanted to force the emancipation of slavery. But in a solemn effort to save the God-given union, he fought. He fought not for his own freedom but for the freedom and union of others. Stop and think about that. He was heavily pressured by Radical Republicans, peers, to bring punitive action to the South. Yet, we see His speech. His speech, in which he rhetorically knelt down and humbly forgave the South, welcomes back all to the United States of America. Think of that! What a man. What a leader. What a man of God. Quiet mercy in the cacophony of justice.

After this stunning act of love--just five weeks later--this special man was shot in the skull in cold blood resulting in a long, agonizing death.

Here is a man who strove for unity in a divided country. Here is a man who honored the rule of law and who defended the Constitution even when it meant honoring his vehement enemy of slavery. Here is a life bathed in sacrifice for his country, for others, for everything but himself.

I couldn't help but cry as a flood of gratitude for this man washed over me, chocking me with emotion. This monument will always be a special place for me.

I Love History

So I consider myself the luckiest man alive. I'm going back Back East for school. I lived all around New England for two years as a missionary, seeing more of that area of our beautiful nation than anyone could hope for. But now I have 9 more months on this side of the country, but in Williamsburg, VA.

After taking my challenging AP U.S. History class with Mrs. Dowler in high school I developed a veracious appetite for our country's history. Teaching hundreds of students about our American Heritage during my undergraduate experience at BYU made me appropriately sold to the prospect of attending the College of William & Mary for graduate school.

For the next several months, I'm going to document my adventures on this blog. My goal is to tempt anyone who reads this to come out and touch the wealth of history here that is yours and that is mine.