and new chapters are being written every day."
Jamestown, VA - May 13, 2007
I would love to have been in Jamestown yesterday to see President George W. Bush. It's no secret I admire the man and value his leadership in the War on Terror in this country.
Jamestown was an important part of every Virginia school child's history lesson when I was growing up, and I can remember my 4th grade class visiting the recreated area where I was particularly intrigued by the glass blowers.
A few years ago a group of home school parents from the Valley took our children for a field trip to Jamestown. A home school field trip involves the entire family including mom, dad, and siblings. It was fun to watch our children react as we had years before when climbing on board those what-seem-to-be tiny replicas of the ships that sailed from England to America and watch, amazed, at the glass blowers. They, too, climbed into the hollowed-out canoe where we took photos that we've enjoyed in the years since.
It was also interesting to see Jamestown from an adult perspective, wondering how anyone survived harsh Virginia winters in those buildings, and pondering how a grown man could travel for months in a cramped "ship" where they were packed like sardines while crossing the ocean.
I wandered away from our group and spent a while gazing out over the James River, thinking of those adventurers and how much courage it would have taken to head out to an unknown land with unknown dangers so far from home.
The irony is that tobacco was the crop that saved Jamestown, and now 400 years later, it is under assault all over the United States.
Jamestown. Happy Birthday, America.
Happy Birthday to my home, the Commonwealth of Virginia!
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