Advent Blog: Profound Educational Experience - HS Style

I have had at least two truly profound educational experiences that have affected my thinking about a lot of things.  One was in high school, one was in college.  I have had many great teachers since I was in an excellent public school system and then a university where the best teachers were in the classroom, but the experiences I am writing about today and tomorrow were truly thought provoking for me...

One day Mr. Hughes, who I had for World History and AP US History was absent when I was in AP US History.  He had a sub, but in true Hughes style that didn't mean we were going to mess around.  We had the 50 minute class period to write an essay called "American Revolution - Revolution or Civil War?"

I didn't know at the time I would eventually live in Indiana, a state where people fought on both sides of the US Civil War...or attend a church that was established out of disagreement between members at the common/root church over the civil war.  Indiana, by all rights, should be a northern state.  But there is something about the history, the people, and the culture that makes it more complicated than that.  And it has been that way for more than 200 years (2016 is the state's bicentennial).  Brothers fought against brothers in the civil war, brothers from Indiana.  So it makes sense that there developed factions at Christ Church in Indianapolis.  A group left Christ Church over the division of the war and founded St. Paul's.  The writing over the arch at the (now) rear of St. Paul's worship space says "Neither Do I Condemn Thee, Go And Sin No More."  It was a message that stemmed from the division with Christ Church.

But that's all about our Civil War.  That makes sense since we were a country at war internally.  But was the American Revolution a civil war?  I don't remember what I wrote (different tale than tomorrow).  I do remember struggling because I could argue both ways.  This was one of the most specific times I can remember where I didn't have a firm belief and I had to resolve the internal conflict in less than an hour (at least for the paper).  We were seeking independence from the British and wanting to revolutionize government by creating a representative democracy.  Yet, many people still identified as subjects of the King and had family and friends in England with no real disagreement with the British monarchy.

One of the reasons that this becomes so profound is because later Michael Griffin (brilliant man and amazing public servant) asked "Of course you would die for your country, but would you die for your state?" when we were in Texas for a convention.  It made me think.  First, I had to challenge the assumption of being willing to die for my country.  I respect those who hold that belief and who have served in an effort to allow me to continue to not test my loyalty.  Second, I wasn't sure (even if I would die for my country) that I would die for any state...and I would have to decide which state was "my" state.  I have now been in Indiana for 21 years, my entire adult life, and I am married to a native Hoosier.  Yet I still identify as a Michigander and feel deep to my core that "you can take the girl out of Michigan, but you can't take the Michigan out of the girl."  This whole thing hit me again this week while I was watching the Wiz.  Dorothy has to decide where is "home" before she can go there.  She has been longing to return to Omaha, the place of her birth...but she comes to realize that her home is in Kansas.  I am not sure I have had my "Dorothy" moment yet.

So was the American Revolution a revolution or a civil war?  It was both.  Being an American has always been complicated.  We are a nation, largely, of immigrants.  Of people who have intermarried for generations across many cultures, nationalities, religions, and ethnicities.  We are a nation with continued immigration and communities who have not chosen to integrate, and may choose not to.  We are a nation who can't decide if freedom of religion and freedom from religion can coexist peacefully and if people of different religions can do the same.  We have racial, ethnic, class, family status, and gender "war" playing out every day...some are seeking a revolution still, others are engaged in a civil war, and others just want to live in peace.