Gettysburg

When I drove to Washington, D.C. last weekend, I passed through Gettysburg, unexpectedly.  By that, I mean that I was on the right route, but I just didn't realize that it passed through Gettysburg.  It was getting late and I had already been stuck in more traffic than planned, so I didn't stop, but I was certainly intrigued.

Oooh, another national park to check off my (rather small, actually) list

On the way back home, since I wasn't in quite as much of a hurry, I decided to check it out.  Also, luckily, it was a beautiful fall morning -- sunny and pleasantly crisp.  Plus, I really like Lincoln.  Let me explain.  At St. Olaf, we were all required to take at least one ethics class as part of the liberal arts requirement.  During the busiest semester I ever had (because of challenging courses, leadership positions, and eight medical school interviews), I took Philosophy/Religion 278: The Ethics of War.  It turned out to be the best class that I ever had.  Professor Santurri's fierce conviction and quiet enthusiasm for the class -- as well as the way he was able to teach a highly charged issue without ever giving any hint of what personal views he held -- made me excited to read and think and write and debate.  One of his favorite topics is Lincoln, and you can be sure that we discussed Lincoln and the ethics of the Civil War from all sorts of different perspectives.  I had never cared much about the topic before that semester, but the class made me realize how much more complicated and interesting the whole era was.

The spot where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address

So, I have an appreciation for Lincoln.  I still have the Lincoln book we read for class, actually, along with two of the other more interesting books we read.  Last year, one of my medical school friends was perusing my bookshelf, and she asked why I had a book about President Lincoln.  I explained how much the ethics class had meant to me, especially since I had ended up in the military, where I am so thankful to have such a rich background in the ethics of war (something which many people do not have the chance to be formally taught).  My friend had not gone to a liberal arts school and was blown away by how enthusiastic I was about a non-science class.  In that moment, along with several other moments over the past year and a half of being away from college, I realized how lucky I was to have received such a well balanced education.  I also realized that I wanted to let my professor know how much I had learned and taken away from his class.

Demonstration in the fields of Gettysburg

So I wrote him a note and sent it in the mail.  I thanked him for the enthusiastic and thorough teaching, I told him that I was now in medical school (so all those days I skipped class for interviews were actually justified), and I let him know how useful the background had been as I entered the military and began to think more about the ethics of war, which now pertain to me more than they ever did before.  I figured it was the least I could do to.  A few days later, I received a very excited e-mail from him saying that my card had made his day.  In addition to making some very flattering comments about my future success in both medicine and the military, he said that he would share parts of my note with the current ethics of war class he was teaching, just to give them a little extra motivation.

The memorial for the Minnesotans who had died in the Civil War.  Every state had its own monument somewhere throughout the park.

There was really no point in telling that whole story just now, except to justify my comment that I like Lincoln. Yes, I like Lincoln because I had a phenomenal class with a phenomenal professor.  And I got to see Gettysburg on a beautiful fall morning, and walk through the National Cemetery in peace, and think about America and all of the things that I appreciate.  That was meaningful.