360°
They say that hindsight is twenty-twenty. Even in a well thought-out action like the American
Founding Fathers scribing the Declaration of Independence, creating a nation may
have been monumental, but it also began the reduction of the long-standing British
Empire. The statement of freedom became
a single step towards the formation of a superpower despised by upstart
countries throughout the world. And even
worse the pronouncement based on liberty looked the other way as the basic
liberties failed to extend to American Indians, women, African Americans, and
an expansive list of religious, sexual, and, ethnic citizens. Nonetheless, two hundred and thirty-seven
years of educating ourselves and analyzing the actions of those men allow us to
consider better courses of action for the future. We’ll always be reevaluating our choices,
from everyday decisions to life-altering choices.
Visiting the Sierra Nevadas in eastern California
treats any visitor to a spectacular range of environments from cold winters to
brutal heat. At a height of more than
14,000 feet, the range’s highest point, Mt. Whitney, straddles Death Valley
(see “Desert Dust,” October 2011) and Sequoia National Park. The snowy range includes an abundant source
of water to support the megalopolis of San Francisco and Los Angeles. And
tucked high above Truckee, California far uphill from the resorts of Lake Tahoe
lies the Sugar Bowl Ski Resort built in the early twentieth century to entice
the citizens of San Francisco area to enjoy the snowy, winter wonderland
between Mount Judah and Mount Lincoln.
They say that hindsight is twenty-twenty. Even in a well thought-out action like the American
Founding Fathers scribing the Declaration of Independence, creating a nation may
have been monumental, but it also began the reduction of the long-standing British
Empire. The statement of freedom became
a single step towards the formation of a superpower despised by upstart
countries throughout the world. And even
worse the pronouncement based on liberty looked the other way as the basic
liberties failed to extend to American Indians, women, African Americans, and
an expansive list of religious, sexual, and, ethnic citizens. Nonetheless, two hundred and thirty-seven
years of educating ourselves and analyzing the actions of those men allow us to
consider better courses of action for the future. We’ll always be reevaluating our choices,
from everyday decisions to life-altering choices.
That’s what interpreting history does: allows a
three-hundred-sixty view of circumstances that may have barely had a fractional
view of all the facts at the time they occurred. I’m sure General Custer thought he had everything
under control at Little Bighorn (see “Cornered on a Hilltop,” July 2013). Attacking Russia worked so well for Napoleon. Jailing Nelson Mandela quieted the world on
the issue of Apartheid. It’s always
easier being the armchair quarterback than being the guy in the huddle, even if
it ends well for the guy in the huddle, it may just as likely end poorly. Just ask Joe Theismann – I’m sure he didn’t
plan that.
Stuck in the Snow
Visiting the Sierra Nevadas in eastern California
treats any visitor to a spectacular range of environments from cold winters to
brutal heat. At a height of more than
14,000 feet, the range’s highest point, Mt. Whitney, straddles Death Valley
(see “Desert Dust,” October 2011) and Sequoia National Park. The snowy range includes an abundant source
of water to support the megalopolis of San Francisco and Los Angeles. And
tucked high above Truckee, California far uphill from the resorts of Lake Tahoe
lies the Sugar Bowl Ski Resort built in the early twentieth century to entice
the citizens of San Francisco area to enjoy the snowy, winter wonderland
between Mount Judah and Mount Lincoln.
In November of 1846, without the benefit of
hindsight or of a full-circle view, a group of eighty-one west-coast bound
settlers discovered the downside of the Sierra Nevada winter wonderland and
only forty-five descended the mountain pass to the pleasures of the California
coast, with some horrifically poor dietary decisions along the way. When I drove the path myself, I enjoyed the
benefit of knowing what could occur when unprepared, and yet I still had to
leave my vehicle to help push a fellow driver out of the snow bank in which he
had found himself trapped. And the view
from the summit reminded me that even when we learn from history, it may still
be hard to see where we are going. Thank
goodness the fog finally lifted.
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