History needs to be preserved for the future

My secret is out. I spend the better part of my current time writing about history and volunteering with the Friends of Wilderness Battlefield so that I may rub elbows with the likes of Richard Dreyfus. I confess it was a thrill!

What you may not know is that last week I also enjoyed meeting Dr. Frank Smith, Director of the African American Civil War Soldier Museum and Memorial and Dr. Libby O’Connell, VP and Chief Historian at The History Channel. The discussions were inspiring and for me reassuring. The room was filled with excitement, collaboration and the launching of new ideas.

The nature of the event was to recognize the 10 most endangered battlefields in America, but to stop the discourse on such a superficial level would constitute an injustice to the great minds and dedicated resources gathered together in that room.

Anyone who defines preservation in terms of saving tangible old stuff just because it is old misses the real message.

Richard Dreyfus spoke passionately about the need to preserve not all the battlefields but certainly those whose outcome impacted dramatically the idea of America and the rights, liberties and duties we, as Americans, hold sacred.

Attendees of the conference were reminded that the American Civil War was as much about freedom and liberty and the integrity of America as was the American Revolution. For that reason alone, the physical landscapes must be preserved wherever possible and utilized as monuments to the sacrifices that have sustained the glory, not of war but of the concept of America.

Imagine telling your child of the sacrifices and accomplishments made by his or her grandparents. Your point of course is to instill a sense of pride and personal integrity that they will carry forward in their own lives. As the story unfolds you discover that there is nothing to show them. It becomes simply a story without substance.

No one cared enough to save the very best.

Reminds me of the lyrics from Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi:

They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
They took all the trees
Put ‘em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see ‘em
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
The concept of what it is to be an American is embodied in the decisions we make regarding every aspect of our environment: natural, historical and social. We, as American citizens have a mandate to consider more than the end of our individual noses.

Reflecting on the history of this great country, the history of Culpeper, the history of American citizens, we should be asking ourselves at least one serious question.

What will our choices today tell future generations about what we valued? Until next week, be well.

Zann Miner, former director of the Museum of Culpeper History, can be reached at or send her mail at the Star-Exponent, 471 James Madison Highway, Culpeper Va., 22701.