June 18, 2013
The departure for
Wisconsin was scheduled for early Sunday morning, so there was plenty of time
to make our way back. We spent the night in Hardin, so we’d be right on the
spot for Jack’s first visit to Little Bighorn, another of Grandpa’s favorite
places.
Here is the link fromour previous trip to the battlefield, on which Grandpa delightedly accompanied
us. He grew so fragile by the end that it’s a
little hard to imagine, but as recently as 2009 Tina and I took him camping
several times. We had to help him down to his bed, and haul him up again, but
he really enjoyed travelling with his grandkids and great-grandkids! As a former history teacher who had made the
past come alive for so many students, he was always enthralled to visit these
storied places.
We found the quiet
visit among the dead very soothing, just as I had suspected and planned. (Not
that I’m bragging or anything. Well, not much.) We were rather disappointed to
miss the start of the battle reenactments the very next day, but made plans to
be there in 2014.
Near the visitor’s
lodge, a retired teacher kept a large audience spellbound with his descriptive
rendition of the battle. I’ve never seen anything like it, but due to the
family nature of this blog, I can’t bring myself to share everything I learned.
Let’s just say that in the history books, it seemed a little more sanitary.
Never before had I known in such detail exactly what splattered where, and
when. And apparently Reno was so unnerved by the sudden welter of gore that
descended upon his person, that he went completely off his rocker and began to
issue back-to-back contradictory orders. On the horses! Off the horses! Back on
the horses! What are you doing up there? Get down! Aaaaaaaaaagh!!!
Some body parts of well-known people in the battle were the thickness of parchment by the end. The native women took their own steps to ensure that Custer and his men couldn't continue to hunt their dead loved ones in the afterlife.
Small children listened,
wide-eyed, to the graphic account. Some
parents might disagree, and they should feel free to do so, but I found it
refreshing to have war portrayed in all its unvarnished horror, rather than
being glorified or glossed over. Nobody listening to that would feel a desire
to have been there, no matter how brave they might be. There was no glamor
there, only a tragic slaughter of
priceless men, women, and children.
It’s been a little
over 137 years since then. Have we learned our lessons of love and tolerance?
Nope, not entirely. In Matthew 24, in the double prophecy that Jesus gave of
what would happen both before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and before His
coming at the end of the world, He said that “nation would rise against nation”.
In the Greek, the word is ethnos, from
which of course we get words like “ethnic”, or “ethnicity”.
As we get closer and
closer to the Second Coming, racial tensions will continue to increase. Ethnic
groups will continue to fight each other more and more. When we see this
reflected in the news headlines, we can know that Jesus’ coming is getting very
near.
And if we belong to
Christ, we can rise above these tensions, and avoid getting caught up in
earthly labels based on our outward characteristics. “For ye are
all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For
as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There
is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male
nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if
ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Galatians 3:26-29
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| Native American Memorial |
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