|
|
|
Jewish World Review May 25, 2005 / 16 Iyar, 5765 Balancing the need to remember against the needs of the future By Froma Harrop
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
New Yorkers continue to agonize over what historic message to
leave at Ground Zero. It's mostly a tussle between saying that life goes on
and recalling the life that stopped on Sept. 11, 2001. Everyone agrees that
good taste must rule. This is hallowed ground.
The battle site at Gettysburg, Pa., is also hallowed ground.
But Gettysburg officials are now examining proposals for a casino within
cannon earshot of the dying fields. The Gettysburg Gaming Resort and Spa is
getting serious consideration.
The casino "will provide added amenities for the millions of
tourists who already visit our historical sites," explains the spokesman for
Chance Enterprises, the casino's investor.
It makes you wonder whether anything can stay sacred for long.
More than 12,000 soldiers — Confederate and Union — died at Gettysburg.
When Abraham Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address on Nov. 19, 1863, five
months after the battle, human body parts were still emerging from the mud.
Americans saw the ground as holy and full of meaning. Lincoln
said that "the brave men, living and dead, who struggled here" had already
consecrated the ground. It was the "unfinished work" of the "living" to sew
a torn nation together and seek freedom for all its people.
In the months that followed, Frederick Douglass, the black
abolitionist and editor, made constant reference to the sacred ground at
Gettysburg. To him, it marked the burial spot for a slave-owning America. Of
the old Union, Douglass said, "It is dead, and you cannot put life in it."
Veterans from both the Union and Confederate sides would make
anguished pilgrimages to the site — though not together in the early years.
But as time passed, the emotional force of the earth underneath started to
fade.
Woodrow Wilson visited on the 50th anniversary of the battle and
gave a dull speech. The segregationist Jim Crow laws had crushed the hopes
of African-Americans. But mindful that he had been elected by only 42
percent of the popular vote, Wilson avoided noting that the quest for racial
equality remained "unfinished work." Too controversial.
That's not to say the battlefield has lost all power to move.
Visit Gettysburg today, and immerse your thoughts in the horror of July
1863: It's hard not to be shaken.
But still, the battle was 142 years ago. The feelings evoked
today are not strong enough to easily quash efforts to build a casino
nearby.
The gaming palace would be five miles outside of the Gettysburg
National Military Park. The 42-acre site was a staging ground for
Confederate soldiers. Casino supporters note that there's already a strip
mall across the road, so what the heck. Advocates for historic sites,
including Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg, haven't rejected the
idea outright.
Like gambling interests everywhere, Chance Enterprises touts the
economic potential. The casino could provide 1,000 permanent jobs and create
some nightlife for the area. One of the investors wants to build "Gateway
Gettysburg": a complex of hotels, convention center and eight-screen movie
theater next to the casino.
But consider the possibility of something truly tasteless.
Reflect on a proposal for a Ground Zero Casino and Resort, steps from where
the Twin Towers once stood. Imagine its backers saying that the casino could
give potential visitors to Ground Zero (to quote the Gettysburg casino
spokesman) "one more reason to come."
Impossible? Ask again in 2147, which would mark the same amount
of time that has elapsed since the Battle of Gettysburg. By then, Sept. 11
will have become just another "famous date in American history." And saying
it in speeches will no longer summon shudders from the audience.
The passage of time erases the greatest of pain. All that's left
to protect our hallowed grounds is a sense of history. When historical
ignorance takes over, no place is safe once the blood has dried.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
© 2005 Creators Syndicate |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
