If you're trying to figure out where you're going, start by remembering where you've been
Everybody has a story to tell.
And so does every place.
This place certainly has its share.
I was discussing some of our local history recently with our summer intern, a journalism student at the University of Maryland, and if you think the young'uns aren't interested in history, think again. Either she was being unnecessarily solicitous or she was genuinely absorbed in the stories and events that made the community she's been helping us cover this summer what it is.
I'm trusting it was the latter. Because while it's easy for those of us who reside here to grow indifferent about the history that surrounds us every day, the stories are real, and fascinating, and cast long shadows. Things we take for granted — independence, economic opportunity, civil rights — all have their origins in somebody's story.
Every month we feature one of those local stories, courtesy of the Washington County Historical Society. And there's a reason for that. For all the advances in transportation, communication, technology, etc., the one thing that hasn't changed is human nature. And there are plenty of lessons to be learned from the words, actions and experiences of those who've gone before us — lessons that could, and should, be applied today.
As a Marylander, my young colleague was of course familiar with the Battle of Antietam. But the part she hadn't heard concerned the families in Sharpsburg who continued to suffer long after the guns were silent — how diseases that spread from the occupying troops or the decaying carcasses of animals killed during the battle claimed the lives of many residents, how some faced starvation because their crops were either destroyed or confiscated, how some were never compensated for the damage to their properties.
She hadn't yet heard about the real birth of photojournalism with those battlefield pictures taken in the days after the battle; photos that shocked the country into reality when they were displayed.
She learned this summer that the first Washington monument was built here and that Washington himself had considered Williamsport for the nation's capital, and that before he founded that city in upstate New York, Nathaniel Rochester founded a bank in Hagerstown and built a fine home on the corner of Potomac and Washington in Hagerstown.
She also learned the local yarn about the ghosts of horses making a racket at the old Independent Junior Fire Company building on North Potomac Street, and about why Jonathan Hager built a "house-fort" over a protected water supply in a spot that's now part of the city's signature park.
And about the Hagerstown System, when Fairchild enlisted the aid of local manufacturers to produce the planes that helped us win World War II; and I think we also touched on the Ritchie Boys, who quietly populated Cascade and developed intelligence that helped save the entire planet.
I don't think we've even gotten to the Underground Railroad, although this week she's been researching another aspect of local Black history.
The point is that there are so many stories, both locally and in our own families, that help illustrate what was happening in our nation in every era. They give flesh to historic events. Sometimes they inspire. Sometimes they shock. Sometimes they leave us shaking our heads, either in awe or in revulsion.
Either way, this heritage is important — and the question for us is what we will do with it. Will we learn from it? Will we take inspiration and encouragement from it? Will it compel us to avoid the mistakes of the past? Or will we be indifferent to it, going our own way until we suffer by repeating errors we could have avoided?
Are you putting things off because you're bogged down in other stuff? Time to break free
If you're a parent, consider taking your kids on a local "magical history tour" before school starts this fall. Show them history is more than dates and names to memorize for a test and then forget. Let them see where history happened and help them learn the stories behind the dates and the names; encourage them to explore the causes and consequences of events like the world wars, the civil rights movement, the Revolution.
Visit the national cemetery at Antietam and talk about the losses. And while you're there, you'll also have a perfect opportunity to tell them about the terrorist attack on the USS Cole — an international event that took a significant local toll.
Give them that sense of place and belonging so that when they are adults and can vote, or serve in the armed forces, or be affected by policies that have developed over the years, they'll have a foundation for understanding why things happen and how to make wise decisions as a result.
Because when you're trying to chart out where you're going, it always helps to know where you've been.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: History should be treated as a tapestry of compelling stories