Stepping on Hallowed Ground - Essay Example

Stepping on Hallowed Ground Is nothing sacred anymore-not even the soldier's remains that died defending his family, country, or land While the rights for individuals, including women, children, and minorities are defended with cries that are heard by an audience of emphatic listeners, who is there to defend the battlefields of soldiers. The hands of the greedy are slowly destroying these hallowed grounds, where more than 600,000 American soldiers lost their lives. They are being paved over in the name of progress.

This is "the same land upon which our nation was formed-where our ancestors fought and died" It is "being consumed by fast food restaurants, amusement parks, and other forms of urban sprawl."When Abraham Lincoln said that these soldiers died so that, "the nation might live," he never dreamed that the America that was to come would have such irreverence for the soldiers who paved the way through the loss of their lives for this country to have the opportunities it now has.Our future generations will be the ones that suffer the most from this desecration.

If this destruction continues, no longer will they have the opportunity of visiting these memorial sites--of learning the richness of their history. If the mind set of a fabricated belief about what progress is continues to justify the destruction of these memorials, our children's children and their grandchildren will never be able to stand upon these battlefields and imagine what happened what happened there. They will not be able to touch the gravestones, nor to envision the sounds of distant artillery shells.

Moreover, they may only hear the noise of bulldozers.How do we go about fighting against this sacrilege It is certain that if the present day apathy continues more of the battlefields will be doomed. It does not take a rocket scientist to point out the greatest need is that we become more involved with the battlefield preservation movement. One of the best ways to do this is through support of the American Battlefield Protection program, sponsored by the National Parks Service, who is commissioned to preserve these sites.

In addition, we must let our leaders know that we expect them to work harder to put into place laws that will protect these sacred places.The ABP Association sums up best the true purpose and meaning of these battlefields: " The United States has fought numerous wars on its own soil: civil wars, wars for freedoms, wars for territory. Each war profoundly affected the history and development of this nation. Today, these military struggles are represented by the fields of battle that remain. Historic battlefields evoke strong emotions of patriotism and dissention, sacrifice and waste, valor and cowardice, and brutality and humanity that marked American warfare" Perhaps with these words, the words that their removal from American soil of these battlefields removes much of our nation's patriotism!

References:Gabor S. Boritt, Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream, p. 282.American Battlefield Protection program, the National Parks Service, 2005 Publication.The Civil War Preservation Trust, 1331 H Street N.W. Suite 1001, Washington, D.C., 2005 Publication.