(5) Gettysburg. How can I even begin to describe the feelings I had there? I had not expected to feel the sensations that washed over me as I stood on Cemetery Hill. I was engulfed in the feelings of the struggles that occurred there. Friend against friend and brother against brother in a battle of lead and opinions. And I was suddenly, acutely aware that this was not a war of good and evil, but a war of standards and individual beliefs. On both sides stood good people fighting for what they believed was a good and just cause. I found myself weeping openly for their plight and lack of ability to settle their differences peacefully. It is a feeling that has not since left me. A feeling that perhaps I may learn from their shortcomings and try to do better, today. I stood where President Abraham Lincoln Stood as he delivered one of the shortest, yet most profound speeches ever given by a President of the United States, and I felt the words he spoke as he said that this government, for the people, by the people and of the people shall never perish from the earth.

I am convinced that visiting historical sites can and should be more than just standing on the spot where they occurred, but should be a feeling, deep inside each of us, what the significance of the event was, how it now affects our lives, and what we must do, from this point, to continue to move forward and upward so that their struggles and sacrifices will not have been in vain.