I will take history in any form you serve it up to me. Archeologists all over the world are constantly finding new connections and discoveries that change the way we see the world and what has gone before. It is an exciting and challenging time to be alive.
    One of the most fascinating discoveries has been the realization that the continents of North and South America were not “discovered” by Columbus as we were led to believe.  There is evidence that Chinese explorers were aware of the west coast and traveled north and south; we have all heard about the Vikings and their settlements in Vinland or eastern Canada.  It is believed the Vikings knew of maps from Basque (Spanish) fisherman who for years had followed the ocean currents to the fishing grounds of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. And from evidence discovered around Lake Superior, historians believe people of the Minoan empire in Crete, trading during the Bronze Age used the Atlantic Ocean currents to great mines of  copper from that area. There were stories and maps well-known in Europe that led discoverers to try their hand at tracking down the riches that were out there.  Rest assured the European voyages of discovery were not for the well-being of the indigenous people, but rather how they could be exploited, enslaved, and their lands stolen for the riches they held.
    Indigenous peoples were not “discovered”; they had cultures and histories that were as old as the Europeans they met.  Indigenous people include the Aborigines in Australia, the Maori in New Zealand, the Hawaiians in the Sandwich Islands, the Amazon River people, and the complex societies of Native American tribes in Canada and the United States, South and Central America.  Evidence is found of a vast network of trade that moved from coast to coast.  The "Mound Builder" cultures in the U.S. span the period of roughly 3500 BCE to the 16th century CE, including the Archaic period, Woodland period (Calusa culture, Adena and Hopewell cultures), and Mississippian period.
    Columbus did not stumble on a native culture that was in the last stages of decay, but rather met up with a proud people in tune with their environment and living in societies that were great and powerful and had long histories.  One of the greatest forces that destroyed or weakened these cultures were diseases to which the indigenous peoples’ immune systems were not able to fight.  Smallpox was a terrible scourge as well as measles.  In the United States the military and political leaders took on a planned method to destroy the native tribes by wiping out their source of food, the buffalo.  The destruction of the great buffalo herds destroyed the ecology of the land and its interaction with the native peoples.
    That was followed by a systematic attempt to destroy the family and societal structures by removing the children from their families.  The horrific results of that are seen in the recent finds of thousands of bodies of children who died at the boarding schools unknown to their families.  Their bodies, found in mass graves, are being discovered throughout Canada at the present time.
    Indigenous peoples throughout the world are reasserting themselves after centuries of slavery and horrible living conditions.  Our President declared October 11th, 2021, as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. “On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we honor America’s first inhabitants and the Tribal Nations that continue to thrive today.  I encourage everyone to celebrate and recognize the many Indigenous communities and cultures that make up our great country.”
    There is so much to learn about this world in which we live. That is the great gift of history.
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    I’ve been reading a lot of history lately and I find in my reading that it wasn’t until humans began to draw together in groups, to create community, that progress occurred.  Archaeologists are discovering that society was much more advanced earlier than was previously thought.  There have been eras of great achievement followed, due to some catastrophe, by Dark Ages and then a rebuilding on the ashes of what was before.  But in it all, it was people working together, in community, for the benefit of everyone that made civilization continue.
    When considering the institutions that have shaped society — public education has been a dominating feature.  When I taught school it took the support of the home and all the teachers and the administration and the auxiliary staff working together to bring one child along to a functioning, productive member of society.  If one piece of the process did not work with the others, we failed that child.
    Groups of people who gather to worship the god of their choice, are by their very nature communal.  There are people who withdraw from society to draw nearer to god, but it takes a functioning, devout group of people to gather for corporate worship, to feed the hungry, to pray for those in need.  Without the communal nature of religion, people supporting each other because of their love for a god-infused humanity, religion soon fades away. One person cannot keep it going by sheer force of will.
    Government was envisaged to help the “whole”.  When groups of people came together for agricultural interests, economic interests, safety issues, great men and women rose up to guide great empires, establish laws, and make life safer and healthier for the people. When the leaders became controlled by self-interest, the civilization most often went into decay.
    Currently we have about one fourth of our population who has opted out of that sense of community.  Gun rights, political challenges and health issues are being defined as individual rights with no consideration for the community as a whole.  Choosing to live in isolation from society is certainly an individual choice.  We have the stories of mountain men who lived off the land, avoiding society whenever possible.  That works if you want that type of life, but once the individual moves into “community” other principles come into play.  If you want the benefits of what “community” offers then there are a few basic rules to live by.
    The old line we heard as children, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too,” comes into play.  Something as simple as a traffic sign or a four-way stop is part of that sense of community.  The idea is that together we can make life better for everyone and no one is excluded.  Douglas John Hall in his book Waiting for gospel identified truth, compassion, justice, judgment, forgiveness, liberation, peace, and hope as the best way we have of “keeping human life authentically human.” And it is these same principles that identify the “community” we can build together.

    I’ve been reading a lot of history lately and I find in my reading that it wasn’t until humans began to draw together in groups, to create community, that progress occurred.  Archaeologists are discovering that society was much more advanced than was previously thought.  There have been eras of great achievement followed, due to some catastrophe, by Dark Ages and then a rebuilding on the ashes of what was before.  But in it all, it was people working together, in community, for the benefit of everyone that made civilization continue.
    When considering the institutions that have shaped society — public education has been a dominating feature.  When I taught school it took the support of the home and all the teachers and the administration and the auxiliary staff working together to bring one child along to a functioning, productive member of society.  If one piece of the process did not work with the others, we failed that child.
    Groups of people who gather to worship the god of their choice, are by their very nature communal.  There are people who withdraw from society to draw nearer to god, but it takes a functioning, devout group of people to gather for corporate worship, to feed the hungry, to pray for those in need.  Without the communal nature of religion, people supporting each other because of their love for a god-infused humanity, religion soon fades away. One person cannot keep it going by sheer force of will.
    Government was envisaged to help the “whole”.  When groups of people came together for agricultural interests, economic interests, safety issues, great men and women rose up to guide great empires, establish laws, and make life safer and healthier for the people. When the leaders became controlled by self-interest, the civilization most often went into decay.
    Currently we have about one fourth of our population who has opted out of that sense of community.  Gun rights, political challenges and health issues are being defined as individual rights with no consideration for the community as a whole.  Choosing to live in isolation from society is certainly an individual choice.  We have the stories of mountain men who lived off the land, avoiding society whenever possible.  That works if you want that type of life, but once the individual moves into “community” other principles come into play.  If you want the benefits of what “community” offers then there are a few basic rules to live by.
    The old line we heard as children, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too,” comes into play.  Something as simple as a traffic sign or a four-way stop is part of that sense of community.  The idea is that together we can make life better for everyone and no one is excluded.  Douglas John Hall in his book Waiting for gospel identified truth, compassion, justice, judgment, forgiveness, liberation, peace, and hope as the best way we have of “keeping human life authentically human.” And it is these same principles that identify the “community” we can build together.

    My great-niece was born on September 11, 2000.  The next year, her first birthday, her mom was arranging a party for her with family and friends.  Then the Twin towers fell and the birthday party was over.  Mom was heart broken.  Today her daughter is lovely and 21 and entering her life with bravado. But, she is a child who has never known a time when terrorism, security threats, and extreme caution have not been part of her life.  I remember saying to someone some years later, “Well if Osama ben Laden wanted to destroy the United States, he certainly changed our lives forever.”
A New York Times columnist wrote, “Our children will never know the innocence we did before 9-11.”
    Sobering thoughts.  But a good indication that we change, we adapt, and in this new reality life moves on. We cannot halt or turn the clock back or fight against what has happened.  As a species we approach the new danger slowly, walk all around it.  Anthropologists say we have a built in “fight or flight” mechanism when change confronts us.
    I have wondered if the world is suffering from a form of PTSD after 9-11-2001. If many of the agonies we have experienced is because we were not able to make that leap from what was to what is.  There are still too many trying to force us back.  Sometimes it takes a huge shock to change society.  I have read about places hard hit by hurricanes or earthquakes who when they rebuild try to build in a design that can hold up to the forces of nature.  Perhaps we are still in the throes of a post-9/11 society and we haven’t yet got our feet on solid ground. As a result of that event we have witnessed 20 years of war in the Middle East.  Men, women and children who wanted nothing more than to have a life are dead due to bombings, raids, drone strikes. The continuing results of those actions — the very necessities of life — food, shelter, education, medical care, economic stability have been denied them because they chanced to be born in the wrong time and place.
    Politically the growing refugee displacement issues tied in to war; the wanton exploitation of our land and resources by the fossil fuel industry; the disruption of basic human rights by governments which are too powerful and greedy can all perhaps be traced back to the fateful September day. Somewhere along the way humanity became too fearful, too greedy, unkind, stripping society of the normalcy of our innocence.  We have become more like animals in the jungle, protecting our turf, rather than people of compassion.
    The hardest part of history is having to live in that transitional period before we once again find our footing.  I look forward to a day when people matter — not politics, not money, not power.  In Isaiah God gives us a picture of that time of peace when the lion lies down with the lamb.  When swords and shields are broken into plowshares and pruning hooks and nation shall not lift up sword against nation and people of anger and disorder can find peace. When the next twenty years have passed where will be?
    

    Rudyard Kipling, 19th century British author, wrote the book “Kim”.  In the story he coined the term “The Great Game”. The point of the story was the involvement of a young boy helping British espionage against the Russians in India about 1840.  “The Great Game” became a metaphor for the centuries old use of the Khyber Pass located in the range of mountains known as the “Hindu Kush”.  The pass connected Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan to India.  India was “the jewel in the crown”.  It was first conquered by Moghul raiders out of Central Asia and then much later became a prize for the British East India Company.
    “The Great Game” was the back and forth of diplomatic strategies including war to protect India by gaining control of the Khyber Pass.  Britain fought three wars known as the Anglo-Afghan Wars in 1839-1842, 1878-80 and 1919 all ending in defeat.  The first Anglo Afghan War resulted in the massacre of some 4500 troops as they fled Kabul.  The general in charge died in prison in Afghanistan. His body was returned to India and he was buried in an unmarked grave.
    A second player in the “Great Game” is Russia.  The expansion of Russian influence into Central Asia and the need to protect its borders made the British nervous for India.  The bottom line of the Anglo-Afghan Wars was keeping an eye on Russian activities.  Russia played a part in the “Great Game” with a nine year occupation and continual battle with Afghans, finally leaving in 1989 after being defeated by the mujahideen.  A communist government in Afghanistan held control for three years before being driven out. Russian casualties were 15,000 soldiers and two million Afghans. Russia has never left “the game” as we see today.
    The third player in the “Great Game” has been the United States.  NATO forces also fought in Afghanistan all with the aim of ending the use of Afghanistan as a center for terrorist groups after the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001.  After twenty years of fighting we see that occupation coming to an end. U.S. casualties were 2,448.
    Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, constituting around 48% of the country's total population. They have been the dominant linguistic group in Afghanistan since the nation's founding.  Pathans are Muslims and speak Pashto (or Pushtu). Historically, Pathans have been noted as fierce fighters, and throughout history they have offered strong resistance to invaders. They are an Iranian ethnic group native to Central and South Asia.
    Three super powers have stepped into “the Great Game” in Afghanistan and each one has left without accomplishing the ends they saw as necessary.  My father, a history teacher, began every school year with this quotation: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  May I add, over and over and over again.
    The West has never taken the time to study Asian history — whether Southeast Asia, China, or Central Asia and Africa with its long history of tribalism and colonialism is another blank spot in our understanding. To brush off other cultures as unimportant to our understanding of the world in which we live is deeply near-sighted, but unfortunately our preference for isolation, racism and xenophobia (fear of people from other countries) have left us vulnerable. Diplomacy is a dicey game and many men and women have called themselves winners to their loss.  There are always bigger stakes than just “losing face”.  The threat of terrorism is a real one, but the game board of history is littered with those who never learned the rules.

I am having a difficult time wrapping my head around all the state legislatures restricting our blood soaked liberty to vote.  I don’t care your color, creed, gender or country of origin voting has always been one of the freedoms we cherish and brag about to the rest of the world.  Having lived my years I can remember when we shook our heads about unfair elections in other countries — people being denied the right to choose their leader in a fair election.  The United Nations would send soldiers to protect the people, men and women who risked their lives to come to the polls and vote.  I used to thank God we had free, fair and open elections when I watched what other people in other countries went through to vote.
Now I am beginning to wonder about the element in this country who is attempting to gerrymander districts and limit access to voting rights just because they control state legislatures and they have the power.  You can’t hand out water to people who are standing in line in the heat for six hours because they treasure their right to vote?
It used to be we shuddered at the restrictions on literacy and poll tax forced on Black American voters in the South.  Now wherever governors and legislators have the power, many of our freedoms are being whittled away from us.
Of course we get weary of the news that blasts us every day of corruption and political battles.  It is so bad you wish some days to crawl in a hole and pull it in after you, but as true citizens of a still free and democratic republic we cannot do that.  We must face our legislators and hold them to account for what they are doing in limiting our rights to elect the candidates we choose.
In Russia, Putin allows some names to appear on the ballot other than his, but elections are a joke.  The people in many of the Balkan countries are limited in fair elections.  Latin America is facing dictators, fascism, organized crime and corrupt officials.  The same is true in various countries in Africa. The recent January 6th attack on the nation’s capitol was attempting to interrupt a two hundred year old process of electing a leader for this nation.  The people’s choice was clear.  Even the military was fearing a coup and there was talk of brown-shirts in the streets. Historians say we came very close to losing our democracy that day.
I used to believe that fair elections in this country were a given.  Not any more.  Thomas Jefferson said that the tree of liberty must occasionally be watered by the blood of martyrs.  Willing to die for free elections where everyone can vote?  May it never come to that in this country.

    July the fourth, 2021. It has been 245 years since the Declaration of Independence which separated us from England and King George III.  As Benjamin Franklin was coming out of the Constitutional Convention some years later,  a woman asked him, “Mr Franklin, what kind of government have you given us?”  “A Republic, madam,” he answered.  “If you can keep it.”  And since those days we have been involved in a struggle to live up to the words, a more perfect union, establish justice, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity.  The United States was born under a dream of a better life for everyone.  But over the years we have had to redefine “everyone”?? And what liberty, i.e. freedom, means, and taking care of ALL the people, and ensuring a JUST society.  And the whole world has watched us down through ages and copied us and come here to make their home.  Because this was America and this was better. There are multitudes of stories of what these people found when they arrived — the struggles, the prejudice, the poverty. It seems before they could really call this home, everybody had to shed a little of their blood in some form to make this dream a reality.
    I have been reading the wartime sermons of Peter Marshall, the pastor of Riverside Presbyterian church in New York City and also chaplain of the US Senate during World War II.  His sermons were legendary as he called to the American people that the country was struggling.  The war was a last resort for the hopes and dreams of humanity everywhere.  We said we were fighting for liberty, but Dr. Marshall noted in our own country people of color and indigenous people were not free to vote or experience economic opportunity.  Dr. Marshall said that God was calling his people to accept the gospel message of loving God and loving your neighbor to create a world where everyone could live without fear.  His sermons from those pivotal years in our history ring out loudly today.  “Our Government is in danger of control by corrupt party machines — cynical, ruthless, self-seeking, lovers of power and authority, which should challenge every true patriot.” We are fighting the same battles today as political parties lash out at each other in a stream of hate-filled words trying to undo any good the other party has done. Humanity cannot advance when this is the path that is taken. This is not what the founding fathers and mothers intended.
     It is worth thinking about on this July 4th and asking the question,  “Will we turn from our rebellious and stubborn ways?”  Could there be a rededication to the ideals that the original signers imagined when they put their names to the Declaration of Independence? They pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to get the dream moving toward reality.  We are not there yet, but there is a spirit in the American dream which holds to the promises of “liberty and justice for all.”  May it happen soon.