Floss religiously

Random thoughts while running to Fort Lamar

I got some new running shoes this past weekend. So, I decided to do some running this afternoon.

I wanted to run to Fort Lamar Historic Site on James Island. Google maps said that it would be about a 3.5 mile run each way. I should have checked the mileage before I left, but I didn't think to check it until I got back home after dark.

I ran along Secessionville Rd, then turned on Fort Lamar Road until I reached the park. I'm still not sure what's there, because it was getting dark as I arrived, so I immediately turned around and ran back to my starting spot. I miss Daylight savings time.

I have a love/hate relationship with running. I never look forward to it, but I always feel better afterwards.

While putting one foot in front of the other, I started thinking about the civil war.

I don't know very much about the Civil War, but it still intrigues me. I often wonder why nobody had made significant advances in technology between the Revolutionary war and the civil war--everybody was still packing gunpowder and lead into poles with triggers on one end.

I also wonder what gives the right of one people to demand that another people remain joined as one nation? I don't think it deserved a war, but I'd hope that with cooler heads, a simple vote could have settled the matter.

Although I'm very pleased that slavery was abolished quite some time ago, I remain sympathetic to the cause of the Southern states. When I read articles, hear stories, or watch movies, I'm always rooting for the guys in gray.

Fort Lamar was the site one of the few Confederate victories in South Carolina.

There aren't really any Civil War movies that I like to watch more than half way through because I know how they're going to end, and there aren't very many that make champions on the southern states.

I've always wondered, "Why do I like the gray side better than the blue?" Maybe it's because I like to root for the underdogs, even I if know they're going to loose. Maybe it's because I like they way they talked.

Or more likely, maybe it's because I hope General Lee's troops will win because my home was their home. My ocean was theirs. These rivers, hills, swamps, and forests were theirs too at one time.

One that same note, major general William T Sherman was a tyrant of the worst sort. After scorching much of Georgia, he methodically cut through South Carolina, and burned, attacked, and raped everything he saw as best he could. I don't even think I'd approve of his great-grandchildren if I knew them. Frankly, I'd be tempted to spit at them.

While some may argue that his scorched-earth tactics may have saved lives and shortened the war, particularly those of Union soldiers, I remain convinced that he was a sick dude. And the land he raped more than a hundred years ago is my home.

I'm sure that Native Americans love the story of Colonel Custer's defeat almost as much as they hate the story of the Trail of Tears. Surely they don't waste time celebrating Columbus Day. I certainly don't.

And I'll be celebrating Sherman's life about the same time that the grandchildren of Hiroshima throw a party for the crew of the Enola Gay.